Easy to talk about books, hard to talk about reading?
15 December 2009
So for the past couple of weeks I have been guest-blogging at the Readers' Advisor Online blog*, and I'm happy to report it's going pretty well. By this I mean that I am largely keeping up with (nearly) daily posts and I've avoided blatantly offending anyone. And yes, that is about the best one can expect from my work product: borderline reliable, and not overtly offensive. I like to set the bar high.
The RAO blog is the front page for the Readers' Advisor Online database, which is a paid-subscription database that librarians and patrons can use to find other books to read (think Amazon, without the overt evilness of Amazon, and with book recommendations made by actual people, not a relational database). I love the database, and I enjoy writing for the blog. But sometimes I find it a frustrating blog to write for. We don't seem to get a whole lot of comments, which surprises me. (Based on the few sources I know how to check, it's got a pretty good number of subscribers/readers.) I know it's primarily a blog for librarians, and they probably don't have the time anymore to comment much on blogs during their workday. But I don't know if I believe that, since there seems to be a lot of commenting action on blogs such as The Annoyed Librarian.
So I'm wondering if it's the nature of our subject that keeps commenting low. Although we do offer lists of new books, and "most wanted" books, and "under the radar" books, we tend to talk more about reading and the process of reading than we do about actual books. Is that the problem? Is it just a lot easier to talk about books than it is to talk about reading?
Anyway. I just wondered if anyone had any thoughts on that. Likewise, if there's any reading or book topics you'd like us to cover at the RAO Blog, just let me know!
*I'm only doing the guest blogging because the regular blog editor, Cindy Orr, who is a fantastic librarian and readers' advisor, is recuperating from an operation. I'm mainly hoping not to embarrass us while she's taking some time off.