The Complete Works of William Shakespeare: A Timeline

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare

Shakespeare as Author: The First Folio

The First Folio of Shakespeare is perhaps the single more important piece of literature in the English language. Twenty of Shakespeare's plays appear in print for the first time in the Folio; plays such as Julius Caesar, All's Well that Ends Well, Macbeth, Antony & Cleopatra, and Coriolanus, would be lost to us if not for the Folio.

Prefatory poem by Ben Jonson
and title page of the 1623 First Folio.

After Shakespeare's death in 1616, his friends and fellow actors John Heminge and Henry Condell assembled 36 of the 38 known plays (Pericles did not appear in the First Folio, but the Third Folio in 1663; The Two Noble Kinsmen did not appear in any Folio but finally a quarto in 1634; another play, Cardenio, is lost) for publication in a Folio-sized book. At the time, a Folio was a size and publication reserved mainly for history, religious, and other weighty subjects, not plays. The First Folio was approximately 13 inches tall and 8.5 inches wide, weighing almost five pounds. Publishing the Folio was a way to not only preserve their friend's work, but also to control the forms the plays appeared in, as there had been many unauthorized and "bad" quartos of plays over the years. Working from what appear to have been either manuscripts by Shakespeare himself or original play scripts, the Folio solidified the texts (mostly) of the plays and elevated Shakespeare from playwright to national poet. As Ben Jonson, who published his own collected works in Folio format in 1616, said in his dedicatory eulogy in the Folio,

To draw no envy (Shakespeare) on thy name,

Am I thus ample to thy Booke, and fame;

While I confess thy writings to be such,

As neither Man, nor Muse, can praise too much.

To have another playwright and poet such as Jonson eulogize him in such as way (and called the "sweet swan of Avon"), as well as a Folio of his works was to immortalize Shakespeare as a great writer. While his place in the pantheon of great English writers has ebbed and flowed, it has never been in doubt since. Without the Folio, an unauthorized-by-the-author publication, Shakespeare would not be the Shakespeare we know.

Shakespeare was not an author as we know an author to be today, with intellectual rights ingrained in his psyche and a desire for his works to be under his control, but the effects of the works that were printed had long-lasting effects on English literature as a whole and on our idea of what an author is.

Shakespeare as Author: The Plays

Shakespeare's plays were printed mainly as quartos until the First Folio of 1623 when they were collected in one place for the first time. Only eighteen of the 38 plays were printed as quartos, leaving the bulk of his plays known to us only from the Folio.

The plays were printed mainly without any involvement from Shakespeare himself.

[A]t least in his role as playwright, Shakespeare had no obvious interest in the printed book. Performance was the only form of publication he sought for his plays. He made no effort to have them published and none to stop the publication of the often poorly printed versions that did reach the bookstalls.

Shakespeare made his money, solidifying the plays at least in his mind as commodities to be used and profited from, by the performances on stage. As we've seen, he was involved in the printing of the two long poems under the patronage of the Earl of Southampton, but there is no indication he had anything to do with the plays. As a result, the quality of the quarto editions of plays varies greatly. King Lear, for example, was printed in a quarto in 1608 (Q1), then in 1619 (Q2) after Shakespeare's 1616 death, and then in the First Folio (F1).

This version [First Folio] of the play is markedly different than Q1: there are about 100 lines that are in F1 but not Q1, and about 300 lines (including the entirety of [act.scene] 4.3) that are in Q1 but omitted in F1; there are also differences in about 800 words between the two versions. 

Q2 included lines not present in either of the other two versions. It's believed Q1, known as the bad quarto, was a reconstruction by a member of the cast and perhaps shows an "as acted" script of one performance. If Shakespeare had been involved in the publication, it is likely he would have provided a manuscript or authorized version in order to keep a "bad" quarto from being published in the first place.

King Lear's 1608 quarto title page

Other plays were printed in numerous editions; for example, Richard III went through seven printings from its initial publication in 1597, through the Folio, and to 1634, showing how popular the plays were and demonstrating a demand for them as printed works, not just performances. 

Works Cited:

Kastan, David Scott (2001). Shakespeare and the Book. Cambridge University Press. Preview Available: http://books.google.com/books?id=h7RlBXLunicC

https://www.folger.edu/shakespeares-works

Shakespeare as Author: The Epic Poems

Shakespeare wrote two long, epic poems early in his career, both of which he dedicated to his patron, Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton. It's understood Shakespeare probably turned his attention from writing plays to poems during one of the closures of the theatres in London due to plague in the early 1590s, probably in an attempt to continue making money to support his wife and children at home in Stratford-upon-Avon.

For his first poem, Shakespeare chose the story of the goddess Venus falling in love with a beautiful young boy named Adonis and pursuing him for his love. Shakespeare's take on the old story was what happens if the youth rejects the goddess? It was published in 1593 and repeatedly throughout the 17th century. The care and effort taken in the printing shows a marked difference with that of the printing of the sonnet sequence of 1609.

The 1595 edition title page for Venus & Adonis

The 1595 dedication page for Venus & Adonis

The Rape of Lucrece was published in 1594 as Lucrece and then in four more printings through 1623. As with Venus, Lucrece features a beautiful title page and a complete dedication page, demonstrating it, too, was published with Shakespeare's authorization and involvement.

The 1594 quarto title page for Lucrece

The 1594 dedication page for Lucrece

The fact there were dedication pages with Shakespeare's name listed demonstrates these were authorized publications, done in conjunction with his patron. How much profit, if any, Shakespeare saw is unknown, as he would have seen his recompense earlier in the process. His patron would have reaped any benefits, including prestige, by the publication of these poems, which were popular and elevated Shakespeare from the mere ranks of just a playwright, although he didn't return in such ways to poetry the rest of his career.

[T]he major relations of exchange for authors occurred within a traditional patronage system in which, through a complex set of symbolic and materials transactions, patrons received honor and status in the form of service from their clients and in return provided both materials and immaterial rewards... the concept of an author owning a work did not quite fit the circumstances of literary production in the traditional patronage system. Even the printing privileges sometimes granted to authors as well as to guildsmen are best understood as versions of patronage rather than of ownership.

Work Cited: Rose, Mark (1993). Authors and Owners: The Invention of Copyright. Harvard University Press. Preview Available: http://books.google.com/books?id=HMB4hdF4lTMC

Shakespeare as Author: The Sonnet Sequence

At the time he was active, Shakespeare was known as a poet and a playwright. He wrote two long, epic poems, 154 sonnets in a cycle, 38 plays, and some other poems. During his lifetime, many of his works were printed/published. The most common format was the quarto, or a small paperback book-sized publication. It wasn't until seven years after his death, in 1623, that the First Folio was published, which collected his plays into one volume the size of a coffee-table book.

The 1609 quarto

His sonnet cycle of 154 sonnets, though written as early as 1590 and possibly as late as the early 1600s, was not published until 1609 and then in what is assumed was an unauthorized format, probably because they were intended for a private audience and not to be published. Only thirteen copies of the sonnets quarto have survived; there was only one printing. The dedication page of the quarto has spurred all sorts of speculation:

TO.THE.ONLIE.BEGETTER.OF.
THESE.INSUING.SONNETS.
Mr.W.H.   ALL.HAPPINESSE.
AND.THAT.ETERNITIE.
PROMISED.
BY.
OUR.EVER-LIVING.POET.
WISHETH.
THE.WELL-WISHING.
ADVENTURER.IN.SETTING.
FORTH.
T.T.

The initials of T.T. are those of the publisher, Thomas Thorpe. It is widely believed that because his initials appear instead of Shakespeare's it means the publication was done without Shakespeare's authorization. If this is the case, it is an instance of the author not only not having any input into the publication of the work, but also one that possibly violates privacy, as the sonnets in the sequence are considered very private, emotional poems. It's also possible Shakespeare authorized the printing, but because May 1609 was a time of upheaval for the theatres in London, having been closed for the plague once again, Thorpe wasn't able to get final approvals and had to print without Shakespeare "signing-off" on them.

In any case, there was only one printing of the sonnet sequence until a 1640 printing in which the sonnets were rearranged. Two of the sonnets, 138 and 144, were published in a 1599 collection called The Passionate Pilgrim. This printing is interesting because the poems are all ascribed to Shakespeare, but are from a number of different authors. The appearance of the two sonnets in Pilgrim demonstrate these two, at least, were written far before 1609, and probably the sonnets surrounding them the 1609 quarto order, as they are thematically linked. It also demonstrates how little control over printing authors had, since it's unlikely Shakespeare had any involvement in Pilgrim; if he had, it's likely he would not have allowed other poems of dubious quality to be linked to his name.

Shakespeare as Author: His Times

In order to talk about Shakespeare as an author in our modern definition, we should first place him in his times so we can know what authorship was like then. Shakespeare was active in London, England, from c. 1590 to c. 1614. Writers weren't known as "authors" at the time; that term was a general term for someone who created or originated something, such as the author of a crime. There were different "varieties" of writers at the time: poets who wrote poetry, playwrights who wrote plays, scientists and mathematicians who wrote tracts. Shakespeare was known as a poet and a playwright, as he wrote poems and plays.

During this time, authors did not have control over their publications, mainly because they were not seen to have control over their works. They usually wrote material for a patron, such as Shakespeare did with his poems and sonnets, or for a purpose, as he did with his plays. The works he created for his patron, the Earl of Southampton, would have then become the property of the Earl, who could decide when and where they were published and who could read them. The plays he wrote would have been intended for performance by his acting troupe, the Lord Chamberlain's Men (later the King's Men), and would have been the property of the acting company.

While plays were sometimes published as stand-alone works, there wasn't the type of reading population that would have supported the practice of publishing everything he or other playwrights created. The act of entering a work into the stationers' register, a way of copyrighting the material, was more for business purposes so others couldn't profit off the works of a particular acting company. Many of Shakespeare's plays were entered for publication, but were not printed immediately, so it appears they were entered to record them in order to protect the acting troupe's interests associated with the script.

Stationers' Register for
2 Henry VI

Shakespeare as Author

William Shakespeare is widely regarded as the greatest writer in English. His writings are required reading in both literature and drama classes. We have the idea Shakespeare was an author, toiling away by himself to produce his masterworks, but was he really? 

"[T]he notion of author is a relatively recent formation, and, as a cultural formation, it is inseparable form the commodification of literature. The distinguishing characteristic of the modern author, I propose, is proprietorship; the author is conceived as the originator and therefore the owner of a special kind of commodity, the work."

Given this definition of author, Shakespeare does not mainly qualify, as we will explore in this blog through examining his role in how his works were published.

Work Cited: Rose, Mark (1993). Authors and Owners: The Invention of Copyright. Harvard University Press. Preview Available: http://books.google.com/books?id=HMB4hdF4l

Week 16 Prompt Response

   At first, I didn't think the way I read books has changed all that much since my childhood, but once I started considering it, my reading habits and the way I interact with the library has changed dramatically. Where once as a kid I would borrow multiple books in one genre at a time, I now spread my reading across multiple genres at a time. I find I don't like to binge-read any more; perhaps that's because of my advancing years and I've realized I don't have time for bad books, or maybe it's because there's just so much more out there than one genre to explore and (hopefully) enjoy.
   I also don't browse the library shelves as much as I used to or as much as I had to. The advent of searching the library catalog online has been an enormous help to me, as I can look for books whenever and wherever I am able to. The ability to add books to a list in my account or to immediately place a hold on them has also made my library searching much more efficient. Ebooks, which I didn't think I would be that interested in ten years ago, have also been a delightful surprise, especially during this pandemic closure. Books I wouldn't think of trying to find in hard copy because while they sound interesting, they just aren't that interesting, I can now pull up on my mobile device and try it out. If I don't like it, it's not that bad of a thing. If I do like it, I can then read it (most of the time) immediately.
  A drawback to the technological aspects of the library is I don't know my librarians. I recognize a few of them, but I don't know any of their names, not like when I was a kid when I was on first-name basis with them (well, including Miss or Mister). I still feel comfortable asking for assistance, but it's not the same.
   I realize I have less time now than I did growing up to just spend time in the library and browse, but I'd like to be able to just spend time in the stacks to see if I can find a hidden gem.
   What will the library look like in ten years or so? The traditional rows of books will be mostly replaced with open-space concepts for multi-person engagement. Patrons will have more access to ebooks, possibly including not only the text of a book, but the book’s various manuscript iterations, background materials, notes from the author and editors, commentary by critics and reviewers, and audio interpretations. We'll be on the way to virtual-reality, fully immersive experiences that include artificial intelligence interfaces guiding patrons to explore not only the texts of books but also the researched material as video game-like walkthroughs.
   We'll continue to read. In general. And when I say "we" it will be that portion of the population that reads now, as Ursula K. LeGuin stated. The entire population has never been readers. If someone isn't a reader by the time they graduate high school, it's unlikely they'll suddenly become a reader later in life. We'll have to continue to expose children to being read to and reading on their own as early as we can so that portion of the reading public grows and doesn't diminish.
   And lest you be concerned about the total disappearance of print books in libraries, there will still be physical books and quiet areas just to read and enjoy a slower-paced mode of learning. Libraries are for everyone and for every type of learning speed. We will have progressed to the point where we can interact technologically with books, but also to the point where we will realize we won’t have to in order to enjoy them.

Week Fourteen Prompt Response

Should libraries provide special places for certain types of books, such as LGBTQ or Urban Lit?

In a word, maybe.

If we're talking about a temporary display in conjunction with a month dedicated to that particular group of people or to highlight a local event, then there's not a problem. We do that already anyway with African American History month and various holidays.

If we're talking about a community that has shown it is interested in having certain genres separated because the community reads them more than others, then it's okay to cater to one's community to make finding material easier.

If we're talking a permanent and completely separate section based on a negative reaction to the material, then that seems counter-productive to the inclusionary nature of libraries. The news report prompting this response makes it clear the segregation of LGBTQ material in that library is to keep it away from other material in an attempt to minimize its presence.

It would depend on one's library, but I would argue against doing such a thing in general:

1. It's exclusionary. We don't separate other books by or about certain groups from the general fiction area. Imagine if we were to have an all-white author section, or an only heterosexual section. Those sections would give the impression that if you're not part of those groups, you can't use the books contained within or that those groups are somehow better than others since they have their own special area. The same principle would apply to LGBTQ or Urban Lit books, but possibly from the other side of the spectrum, that these are not worthwhile and need to be kept away. Many libraries have mystery sections and fantasy sections and western sections within the general fiction section, but all mystery, fantasy, and westerns fall into those sections; we don't pull out those whom some feel are not worthwhile and sequester them.
2. It's not easily doable. What are the criteria for inclusion? Is it just that the book itself falls within those categories, or does the author have to adhere? If a book has one LGBTQ character, does that suffice? If a book has anything to do with urban life, does that qualify? What if an LGBTQ author doesn't write about LGBTQ issues, but writes Urban Lit? Which one would it go under? Would we then separate all types of fiction into their own areas? Where do you put those collections? Way in the back where there's room to do so, but where few will find it, or up at the front to bring attention to it and risk upsetting some people?
3. It's limiting. Not only does it prevent patrons from finding a book in one of the "off limits" section when browsing the shelves and possibly discovering they like that author, it also presupposes that readers of the "off limits" genres only want to read those genres. This is not only short-sighted, but insulting. Urban Lit readers and LGBTQ readers are non monolithic segments of our patrons any more than readers of other genres.

One response to this problem would be to just put all fiction genres together alphabetically and note the genres with stickers on the spines. That way patrons can easily see which books are in their favorite genres, but also be exposed to everything else the collection has to offer.

As with all decisions about a collection, no matter what we do as librarians, someone won't agree, will take offense, or not like it. The best we can do is know our community and patrons, as well as adhere to the open and inclusive nature of libraries to make everything available to everyone and allow people to choose for themselves whether or not to read something.

African American Literature Annotation

Escaping Exodus

by Nicky Drayden

Synopsis

Seske is heir-in-waiting for Matris, head of her people, who are emerging from slumber after their society has moved from inside one space beast to another. As her people begin making the beast into their own place to live, as they have done for generations, Seske must prove to the current Matris she is worthy to be leader of their people. But when she discovers the beast is pregnant and the Matris has ordered it killed, or it will devour the beast's resources meant for her people, Seske is unsure of the direction her people are going.

Characteristics that fit into African American

• This was an interesting "genre" to choose as the guideline was simply that it be written by an African American or Black person. Nicky Drayden fits that bill, so off we go. Beyond African American as a genre, this fits nicely in the speculative fiction genre, with it being science fiction. Another aspect is the characters are all of African or African-esque descent with certain aspects of their culture derived from African or African-inspired cultures.

Characteristics about this Book

• Pacing: The pacing doesn't actually start as slowly as sci-fi usually does, but drops us right into the action, expecting us to keep up without overexplaining everything.
• Characterization: With the plot revolving around the society's rigid caste system, it depends on whose point of view we're currently reading (the narrative switches between Seske and her best friend, Adalla, a beastworker) as to who is a good guy and who is a bad guy. And the characters nicely evolve over the course of the book.
• Storyline: The plot revolves around Seske and her status as heir, which is complicated by the mere existence of her sister, Sisterkin, who was not supposed to have survived birth (the rule is only one child per family and whoever is born first gets to live). Seske is always getting into trouble and does not fit the ideal of what an heir should be, while Sisterkin seems perfect.
• Tone/Mood: The tone starts off optimistic as they are emerging into a new beast, but it gradually becomes more pessimistic as the rigidity of the caste system rears its ugly head and the status of their new beast isn't quite what they thought it was. 
• Style/Language: The language is descriptive, but not flowery. There is a lot of new terminology, taken directly from their history, but not explained outright. We get a good sense of the different castes and how they approach life and what is expected of them through the differing styles of language they each use.
• Setting/Frame: The setting is some time in the distant future; we only realize they are colonists from Earth far into the book. It seems each group of people on Earth created their own spaceship to escape the ravages of overpopulation and now each one is isolated. Seska's people are of dark skin and a matriarchy, while another are of light skin and a patriarchy.

Read-a-likes

• "War Girls" by Tochi Onyebuchi
• "Akata Witch" by Nnedi Okorafor
• "Black Leopard, Red Wolf" by Marlon James
• "Gideon the Ninth" by Tamsyn Muir
• "Children of Blood and Bone" by Tomi Adeyemi

Personal Note

I enjoyed this novel. One of the good things about it was the style of narration. We are dropped right into the action of a people coming out of slumber into a situation they've generally seen before, but we haven't. But we aren't given the normal type of explanations to bring us up to speed; we see everything through their eyes as they'd experience it and have to figure out what's going on by what they naturally comment on. This made the book harder to read to keep up with all the new words and situations that weren't explained, but worth it because it felt more natural. No "voiceover" here to bring us up to speed. And I appreciate it. It's often so easy for an author to do so.

Week Thirten Prompt Response

   Do libraries have the responsibility to promote or provide materials that "many" think are not "legitimate literary choices"?
   Absolutely.
   If we are to adhere to the belief of "every reader his book, every book its reader," then, yes, we have a responsibility to promote all kinds of material, regardless of what "many" think of it. Otherwise, we put ourselves in the position of arbiters of what constitutes "good" or "acceptable" material, and that is not in the purview of librarianship. At the beginning of the American profession, there may be been the notion librarians or libraries were responsible for making sure Americans read only what is worthwhile, but that is no longer the case and hasn't been for quite a while. This most visually gets represented by the use of library computers; we can't prohibit what a patron looks at on a library computer, regardless of what "many" (including ourselves, possibly) think of the nature of what they're looking at.
   Graphic novels are probably the format that most often gets questioned for their inclusion in a library's collection, since on the surface they seem to be just comic books. But even "just comic books" should be allowed in a library's collection if there is demand, and graphic novels are more than just comic books. Many graphic novels are retellings of novels and short stories, designed to present the content in a different, new, and appealing way, just as audiobooks are designed to present novels and short stories in different, new, and appealing ways.
   However, there is always the problem of what do we include in a collection and what do we keep out? Unless a library has unlimited space and resources, it cannot include every single title, so librarian acquisitions staff have to make judgements on what to include and what not to include. Theoretically, this decision should be made based on available resources, the nature of the collection, the appeal to readers, and any demand for titles, not on merit alone. Librarians will have to, in a way, decide what is worth including and what isn't, so our role is still somewhat of the "gatekeeper" is used to be, but if we can keep a balanced and fair approach to all materials, we can limit the amount of instrinsic bias we have toward certain types of mateirals.
   And as we've looked at before, as long as our patrons are reading, whether novels, non-fiction, audiobooks, ebooks, or graphic novels, then it doesn't matrer what or in what format that material is presented. We're doing our job in making those resources available.

Non-fiction Annotation

Soul of the Age: A Biography of the Mind of William Shakespeare

by Jonathan Bate

Synopsis

Professor Jonathan Bate examines William Shakespeare's life through the prism of the seven ages of man speech from As You Like It, corresponding to how a typical man of his age would have lived, what he would have experienced, and how that would have affected his development as a writer.

Characteristics that fit into non-fiction

• Where does the book fall on the narrative continuum? The narrative of this book is much like that of a novel, taking us through the journey of a man's life as it would have been in the late 1500s to early 1600s. It is informative, but easy to read and follow, with stories and examples in place of numbers and dates. Not only is the seven ages of man speech prevalent throughout, but other quotes and scenes from Shakespeare's works are used to illustrate Bate's points.
• What is the subject of the book? The subject is, of course, Shakespeare and what would have shaped him, but more broadly it's the effect of one's culture, surroundings, upbringing, and society on the development and maturing of one's mind. It's also a good general history of Elizabethan and Jacobite England.
• What appeal elements are present in the book? The book is richly detailed with descriptions of towns, fashion, tools and implements, methods of transportation and manufacturing, and sundry other things, as well as explanations of the impact of then-current events, such as international affairs, court intrigue, religious considerations, popular entertainment, and the plague. There are illustrations and maps throughout relating to the ages of man, as well as certain of the items described. We are also given a thorough description of the contemporary information we have about Shakespeare himself.
• What type of book is it?
       This is a biography, as well as a general history of the Elizabethan and early Jacobite periods. It is also a mini-treatise on literature.

Read-a-likes

• "The Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken Past of the American West" by Patricia Nelson Limerick
• ""Milton and the English Revolution" by Christopher Hill
• "Hamlet in Purgatory" by Stephen Greenblatt
• "God's Fury, England's Fire" by Michael Braddick

Personal Note

This is an excellent "biography" of Shakespeare. I say "biography" because the information we have about Shakespeare is pretty scant for a full-length biography. Here, Bate uses the seven ages of man speech and looks at what a typical Englishman at the time Shakespeare was growing up and thriving would have seen and experienced at each of those stages of life (infant, schoolboy, lover, soldier, justice, pantaloon, and oblivion). Those experiences he then links to Shakespeare's writing to see how they would have influenced the Bard's poetry and plays. This is the biography I would recommend for anyone wanting a good idea of who Shakespeare probably was, as it also details the relatively extensive amount (for a relative nobody of the time) of information we have on Shakespeare.

Week Eleven Prompt Response

E-media and Appeal Factors

E-books allow us a great deal of ease and flexibility in our reading. When I hear of a new title I'm interested in, I see if it's available as an e-book first. It's easy to check the different e-book services available through each of my library cards to see if it's there for me to read. This has allowed me to read immediately a number of books I otherwise would not have been able to read or would have needed to wait a while before getting it. I've found that in those periods of time waiting for a print copy, I've sometimes become uninterested in the title I thought I was interested in before and don't end up reading it. For ease of use, it's hard to beat an e-book, especially since we can read them anywhere we have our devices, we don't have to worry about losing or damaging the book, and they return automatically.

All that being said, I do still prefer the feel and heft of a book in my hands. I like being able to see how much more of a book I have left just by glancing that way and judging whether I can get through it in time. Some print books are also formatted in ways that take advantage of page breaks and placement of text or images on the page, which oftentimes gets altered and possibly ruined by the reformatting of the text to the size of whatever screen we happen to be using. I've found I have more of an interesting trying to finish a print book than I do an e-book, possibly because I've gone to the trouble of actually finding it in a library or bookstore and carried it around with me (this does not alter my 100 pages or 1/4 book rule, though).

Audiobooks, both traditional (which now means on CD) and digital, are less of a problem for me as audio is audio regardless of the format. It's again easier to use the digital format of an audiobook if one has the equipment, but that can be said nowadays for CD books as well. I like the all-in-one aspect of e-audiobooks and how it takes up no space (physically) at all; I don't have to change out CDs every so often and keep track of which one I need to listen to next or carry them all around with me (remember selecting CDs for a road trip and making sure the CD wallet was stocked and ready to go?). But I also find the same thing with e-audiobooks as with e-books that I don't have the same sort of investment in them. If I don't get through an e-audiobook, it doesn't bother me as much as if I had not finished a set of CDs.

For readers advisory, it's all about matching the right title in the right format to the reader/listener. I recommend e-books all the time to the patrons who chat in with me as an option to getting the title they want as soon as possible, but sometimes it's just not the right fit. Some patrons don't have the equipment or the desire to deal with what they think is the hassle of digital media, but many of them simply prefer the feel of a book in their hands. These patrons seem to be older patrons, so it's possible with the advent of younger generations as the major drivers of media consumption that will change. However, many older patrons are turning to e-books and e-audiobooks for the very reason of ease of use, as well as that the text size for e-books can be changed to suit diminishing vision, or the speed of e-audiobooks can be changed to suit one's ears. After listening to audiobooks for a living for twelve years, I can listen to narration at higher speeds than most others, but not at the speeds many blind patrons can! The varying speed option is a consideration for many patrons we should be able to mention. Those without the ability to hold a book in their hands for long periods of time benefit greatly from e-books they can simply prop up via a tablet or phone case or stand.

An aspect we do have to consider is how do we get digital media in the hands of those who don't have the ability to use them? So many of use have smart phones and other mobile devices we don't think of those who do not, so the recommendation for someone to use an e-book when they don't have a device doesn't work. There are, of course, such things as playaways that come pre-loaded with digital content on a tablet-like device. Playaways are certainly options to expose patrons to digital media, but those can be expensive and less-flexible options; once the content is loaded, it's there and can't be easily swapped out. And if a patron loses or damages the playaway, much like with a print book, it then is unusable for another patron until it's replaced and a playaway is not as easily or as quickly replaced as print copies. E-books and e-audiobooks don't have these problems.

So the answer, as with print and traditional audio, is to do our jobs and do a thorough (or as thorough as we can) reader's advisory to determine if our patron is interested in digital media or has the ability to use them, without assuming they can and certainly not being disappointed if they don't!

Fantasy Annotation

Gods of Jade and Shadow

by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Synopsis

When Casiopea Tun accidentally releases the Mayan god of death from imprisonment, she is drawn along with him in his search for the stolen pieces of himself so he can reclaim his rightful throne from his insidious twin brother.  

Characteristics that fit into Fantasy

• Pacing: The pace starts out languidly, setting the location in 1927 Mexico. Once the magic appears, the pace starts to pick up, but it's still rather slow, allowing us to enjoy the colorful writing and immerse ourselves in the time and place.
• Characterization: There is a clear difference between Casiopea and the rest of her family, setting her as the good guy and the others as the "bad" guys, or at least the antagonists. When Hun-Kamé, the god of death, appears, we're not sure if he's a good guy or a bad guy and that uneasiness continues for quite a while.
• Storyline: The plot revolves around Casiopea being drawn into a quest with Hun-Kamé, searching for magical items (pieces of the god to restore him to full power) and encountering other magical beings and situations. She eventually sees the quest as a way to break away from her mundane life, even if it is against her will.
• Tone/Mood: The tone is generally optimistic, though Casiopea struggles with a life that doesn't look to change. She does her best to continue to dream and not allow her family members to drain her of her ambitions. 
• Style/Language: The language is highly descriptive, giving us a good sense of the worlds in which Casiopea and the god of death move. Casiopea's is at the same time a dreary and dusty world that nonetheless is brightened by descriptions of exotic Mexican locales and situations. Hun-Kamé's realm of Xibalba, the Underworld, is presented in flowing language and rich details.
• Setting/Frame: The setting is 1927 Mexico, with the story starting in the Yucatan peninsula and travelling across the country to Mexico City and other places, including Xibalba. The setting is drawn from Mexican and Mayan mythology, blending the myth with history in a dark fairy tale. 

Read-a-likes

• "The Ten Thousand Doors of January" by Alix E. Harrow
• "Magic for Liars" by Sarah Gailey
• "The Starless Sea" by Erin Morgenstern
• "The Kingdom of Copper" by S. S. Chakraborty

Personal Note

This fits into the low fantasy mode of fantasy novels. In low fantasy, the magical world can be reached somehow, however far-fetched a method, from our world (e.g., getting to Oz in "The Wizard of Oz," to Narnia in the Chronicles, or to Hogwarts in the Harry Potter series). In high fantasy, the magical world is not connected to our world at all and exists independently (e.g., Middle-earth in "The Lord of the Rings," the worlds in "The Belgariad" or "The Sword of Truth" series). Low and high modes do not have to do with quality, but with the status of the magical realm. Here, the magic of the god comes directly into our world and interacts with Casiopea within her real-world reality in Mexico and the Underworld is accessible.
While I like the story, setting, and characters, the text could have used a more judicious editor, as there is far too much telling of what's going on rather than showing.

Special Topics Paper Summary

Men's Book Clubs in Public Libraries

Women participate in book clubs more than men. But why is this? For many years, women  weren’t encouraged to read or to engage in learning, so men had control over the educational and literary establishments. Men were the librarians in early western libraries and were those one could find making use of those institutions and taking part in reading groups. But then the pendulum swung the other way in the early 20th century, with most public library book clubs becoming overwhelmingly female or female-led and the majority of librarians being women. There are three possible reasons why men do not engage in book clubs as much as women: men do not talk as much as women, nor are modern men public “sharers” of their feelings; they don’t want to read the kinds of books usually found in library book clubs; and they are mocked when they try. Libraries can help with each of these issues to encourage more men to engage in book clubs or groups and to make these groups as welcoming and as open as possible.

There is a belief that women talk an average of three times as much as men do in a day, but it's a myth. Men men may believe this and are thus less inclined to join a book club because of all the talking that will be done by women. Men are not as comfortable sharing their feelings about topics, even books, with others, but are more comfortable doing so around other men. Men also are interested in different types of books than women and find the types of books most book clubs choose to read not interesting. This doesn't mean they aren't interested in literature or literary books, but that the focus of the books are different. The biggest problem seems to be the reaction to men who are in book clubs; the reaction is either they are gay for being in a book club or the type of book club is a threat to women or women's clubs. The shocking news in a 2016 article that men also have book clubs was met with ridicule and concern about how men's book clubs are poisonous, apparently to the existence of women's clubs.

So what can we as librarians and libraries do? We can help facilitate book clubs of a different nature that are geared toward men, without making them off-limits to women. Patrons will naturally gravitate to book clubs, groups, and other events where they feel comfortable, wanted, safe, and in which they are interested. If we start and encourage men’s book clubs or book clubs that read material of interest to men and women choose not to attend, we should be okay with that, just as we should be okay with men not attending women-led or -dominated book clubs. This is the current state of book clubs in libraries, in general, and there doesn’t seem to be an outreach to get men to join women in their clubs. As public libraries, we can’t prevent women from attending a “man’s book club,” any more than we can prevent a man from attending a “woman’s book club,” but we can make more of an effort to attract men to quasi-men only clubs. Men need book clubs just as much as women and we as librarians should be interested in getting the men of our communities reading and involved.

Book Club Observation

I observed the "Night Owls" book club that met in a less-than-year-old branch of a major metropolitan library system on a Thursday evening. As a "new member," I asked only to observe for the session and all were happy to oblige me. The title under discussion was "Where the Crawdads Sing" by Delia Owens. The group was comprised of all women, save me. The ages of the members ran from middle age to senior citizen, with a librarian facilitator who looked to be in her late 20s or 30s. The group was happy to have a male attend, finally. There were two other first-time attendees, though I was not aware one of them was new as she not only was already sitting with the group when I arrived but also took part in the discussion like a seasoned member.

There was not a leader of the group, per se, but one of the members who was a "founding member" got things started by having us all introduce ourselves, gave a brief history of the group (having had to move from a closed location to this one after trying others), and started a brief summary of the book. The group did not have a formal question and answer format or prepared questions to follow; rather, it was more free-flowing, with the discussion going off into tangents and being brought back by various members after those discussions trailed off. The questions that were asked were open-ended and grew organically from the discussion, such as "Well, what did you think about  . . . ?" and "Did you get the idea that . . . ?"

All attendees did not participate fully, but most of the existing members did. It took a while for some of the members to warm up to speaking in a group, possibly as a result of three new people being present, and one woman's elderly mother rarely took part, but I suspect it was because she may have been mostly deaf and was at one far end of the table setup. There wasn't one member who took charge and became the focal point, but as with all groups, there were members who were more vocal.

The group was meeting in a small alcove of a room set along the wall of the main section of the library that was also under an upper section accessed by a long ramp into which the alcove was set. It was called the purple room by the group and they found out while I was there that it is officially called the purple room by the library. As the group had reached nine members (without me), plus the librarian, they would henceforth be meeting in a larger room. The room had two rectangular tables, separated, with a long, cushioned bench on the far side of the tables and chairs on the other side nearest the entrance. It wasn't the best set up for so large a group as members at either end of the table had to strain to hear or take part. There was not a door in the glass "wall" towards the main section of the library, so it was good the library was quiet that evening, without much noise or other distractions. Snacks or drinks were not provided.

The Night Owls is not a group that is designed around one particular type of book, it seems, as the books recently finished and the list of upcoming titles for the year varied. The next book was "Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine," while they had just finished "The Goldfinch." Other titles they've recently read include "The River," "The Great Alone," and two non-fiction books about Tennessee orphans. With a classic, "Rebecca," on tap for this summer, the titles seem to be not one particular genre, but they do seem to be the regular types of books a women's book club would choose. And while the Night Owls is not necessarily a women's book club, the fact I was the first male to attend speaks to it functionally being a female book club and the book choices seem to reflect that. Anyone can recommend a title and the group voted on a slate of books for the rest of the year. This was interesting because an article about book clubs I recently read mentioned the owner of a book store who said men are more likely to plan out a schedule of books for a club than women, who are more likely to want to see what new books are published and "go with the flow."

The book club was a pleasant experience and they were all happy to have me and the other new attendees. We were happily asked back for the next month. It was nice the group felt comfortable enough with each other to speak freely, ask questions of each other, and not feel reluctant to say they didn't remember something from the book or not know what happened. There was not any ridicule of members who either didn't finish the book or who didn't know what happened, something that could and does make book clubs into unpleasant experiences.

Week Seven Prompt Response

Book Controversies

   While it's not really a controversy, the article by Angela Liao on Celebrity Book Clubs caught my attention. In general, I'm okay with celebrities having book clubs, mainly because if it gets more people to read, the better. It's along the same reasoning I have with editing Shakespeare plays for performance: if someone will go see a two-hour "Hamlet," but won't go see the four-hour "eternity" version, I'm not going to insist on the full text as the point is to expose them to Shakespeare. If someone is going to actually go to a library, check out a book, and read it because their favorite celebrity recommended it, great! While some of the "book clubs" listed and others I found in a quick internet search seem to me more like publicity occasions for the celebrity, the end result is really what we're after.
   The article by Butler, Cowan and Nilsson about the influence of Oprah's book club selections was interesting; it showed what seems to me a bit of blind following by her fans early in the book club's history and then a tapering off as either those fans matured in their reading and decisions or as Oprah's overall influence in media waned. This article highlighted a problem with the celebrity book club phenomenon in that some books that may not be all that good are elevated without perhaps much thought by those following the club, skewing the reviews and numbers for libraries and bookstores, which could then affect future purchasing and collection decisions.
  Another problem I saw was all the book clubs mentioned in the Liao article were led by female celebrities. After a brief search on 'celebrity book clubs,' I found that out of 27 such book clubs I could find, only three were by males. These search results were all of the "10 best celebrity book clubs we recommend!" variety. A more targeted search to 'celebrity book clubs men' only netted one more result. Either there really aren't that many male-led celebrity book clubs, or there may be a bias in favor of female-led celebrity book clubs.
  I'm not sure how many men read books because their favorite male celebrity (be it a movie star, tv star, or athlete) recommended it, but I'm guessing it's not many. I'm more inclined to pick up a book recommended by a male celebrity than a female celebrity, but I'm not all that inclined to pick up a book just because a celebrity recommended it in the first place. I don't know what the remedy would be, as we can't force male celebrities to run book clubs or male patrons to choose their reading based on them, but if men come to the library asking about them, it would be nice to have more than four to recommend, especially since one of them I found was a politician and those tend to turn off half of the potential reading audience.

Week Six Prompt Response

   Director,
   You asked about ideas to promote horror books. We should start with a social media campaign just after Labor Day, hinting through posts on our accounts through Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram that something mysterious is coming to the library for Halloween. We'll also have in-library signage about the program that won't give the idea away. Then in October after we've decorated for the season, we'll have online and in-library quizzes our patrons can take to find out what type of horror or scary books they like to read or would like to explore. Their results on the RA-style quizzes will give them hints and clues about a location in the library they'd have to go find. Those locations will have a display of similar books, movies, audiobooks, and comics to their quiz results.
   This will not be limited to adult material; the children's and teen areas will also have displays and quizzes to be found that will contain age-appropriate materials to "scare" them. Patrons will be able to follow a physical clue list or use our library app to scan QR codes pointing them to the next clue on their way through the library. There will only be a few clues so as not to make it too difficult or lengthy.
   We'll set up the displays to be only noticeable as a patron turns a corner, for example, so the display is a bit of a scare (we'll warn them at the beginning to expect it and along the way as they get closer, of course, since we don't want heart attacks). Next to the checkout machines, we'll have a "photo booth" with various frames that say something along the lines of, "My scary book/movie/audiobook/comic match is . . ." and then have patrons be able to have their pictures taken with them holding the book, movie, audiobook, or comic they've chosen. These pictures we'll post to our social media accounts to further drive interest throughout October with the appropriate hashtags.

This is something that could be done with any genre, of course, excepting the "scaring" part of the display, but we can start with horror and scary books since Halloween is coming up in a few months.

Horror Annotation

Stoker's Wilde

by Steven Hopstaken & Melissa Prusi

Synopsis
Supernatural monsters are attacking people in Victorian England under the direction of a mysterious figure known only as the Black Bishop. After teaming up to defeat a werewolf in their native Ireland, Bram Stoker and Oscar Wilde find their lives intertwined and have to overcome their difficult past and widely different personalities to save their friends and put an end to the Black Bishop's evil plan.

Characteristics that fit into Horror

• Pacing: The pace is generally slow, except for the action scenes retold within the diary or journal entries that can be exciting, which allows the growing sense of unease to permeate the action. As the narration is through epistolary style, the "writers" of the diaries, letters, or journals have the time to craft their narration and do so with care, taking their time to draw us in to what happened to them. Then the action scenes burst in, making us uneasy.
• Characterization: The two main characters are studies in opposites, with Stoker filling the haunted individual characterization, as we slowly learn there's something about him tying him to the supernatural. Wilde's character is somewhat unique in horror, as I would typify him as a happy-go-lucky character and this helps to juxtapose Stoker's staid and tragic personality.
• Storyline: The plot revolves around the growing unveiling of the presence of monsters in the midst of the characters' lives. Since there is a werewolf in the opening "chapters," we are set up to believe any kind of monster can then appear. The struggle for our heroes is to battle these monsters and save society from the darkness.
• Tone/Mood: The tone throughout is unsettling. From the first chapter in which our heroes battle a werewolf, there is a sense of dread and that something else could happen at any time.This builds with each encounter with a new character, as we're never sure who or what they may be.
• Style/Language: Told in an epistolary style through diary entries, letters, and journal entries, the novel evokes Bram Stoker's own "Dracula" from 1897. The language is formal Victorian English in many ways, with Oscar Wilde's flamboyant style and Stoker's more staid writing battling each other even as the two conflict. Other missives enter the narration, all set in the type of writing one would expect (i.e., audio interview transcriptions, telegrams). 
• Setting/Frame: The setting is Victorian Britain, a society sufficiently "advanced" to generally scoff at the idea of supernatural monsters, but also sufficiently (for us) historical where we can believe it would happen there. The dark and foggy streets of London allow a situation where anything can be hiding just beyond what the characters can see. The frame of the novel is the letters, diary and journal entries, and other missives in which we get first-person style narrations, making everything more personal and having us wonder when the entries will stop because the writer finally met his or her end.

Read-a-likes

• "Dracula" by Bram Stoker
• "The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde
• "Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus" by Mary Shelley
• "Stoker's Manuscript" by Royce Prouty
• "Of Irish Blood" by Mary Pat Kelly
• "Interview with the Vampire" by Anne Rice

Personal Note

Bram Stoker's "Dracula" was an inspiration for me in writing my own novel and this story was an interesting blend of actual and literary history. The hints and nods at both Stoker's and Wilde's writings are well done without being pervasive and distracting.

Week Five Prompt Response

As an individual reader, I prefer shorter reviews. I'll usually be able to tell through the combination of the reviewer being someone I've learned to trust and what they have to say whether it's a book for me. The Goodreads reviews are usually not that long and if they are, I skim through them to get an idea of what the overall rating of the book is. The reviews that work best are those by readers who have read and rated similarly the same books I have, but that's not always a possibility.
   As a librarian, I think I would want a longer review to determine if the book is one appropriate for the collection.Negative reviews are just as valuable as positive reviews; if a majority of the reviews of a book seem to be negative, it may be a good idea to read the book myself to determine if it's worthy of being included (if I have that kind of ultimate power!) or have the staff all take a crack at it to see if we come to a consensus (if we had that kind of time!).
   I'm not sure how I feel about reviews on sites such as Amazon and individual blogs. There's no control over what gets posted, so in one sense it's the consumer driving the reviews and ratings, and hopefully those would be honest, but at the same time there's no way to keep trolls from driving down reviews or ratings just out of spite or because they're bored. The reviews for the Christmas romance e-book are rather bland and don't make me want to spend the money to add that book to a collection. This is the type of book I would probably wait to be recommended or asked for by patrons before looking further into it, unless I found other reviews.
   The reviews for "Angela's Ashes" all point to the book being of high quality and worth the read, even though the subject matter sounds depressing. It would be a good addition to a collection, not only as a memoir but also for the historical aspect of an "insider's look" at Depression-era Limerick. It's also a good tie-in with the film and would be good to have when film fans come looking for the book the movie was based on.
   It isn't fair for one book to be reviewed and another not, but then life isn't fair, and the book publishing and review industry certainly isn't fair. While it would be nice to have a fair review of every book that gets published, that's just not going to happen. This can affect the collection greatly as we tend to buy books that get reviewed rather than those that don't; it's simply natural that we can't honestly buy a book for a collection we haven't heard of or haven't seen reviewed. That would be a blind buy and is probably not a good practice in general.
   If a review source doesn't wish to publish negative reviews, that's their prerogative; as librarians we'd need to keep that in mind that whatever book we see a review for on, say, Booklist, will be at least neutral if not fully positive. We can use that in conjunction with other sites that do allow negative reviews to get a better picture of what the book is like to make a more-informed decision. Non-negative review sites remind me of social media sites that don't allow negative or critical posts about the subject or group; while some sites are for the enjoyment and appreciation of something and I can understand wanting everyone to have a good time as part of a group like that, fans of those subjects are also usually the most critical because they love that subject and that's when you get the best discussions, rather than just everyone saying they love it. The same would go with non-negative review sites. My response would be, "Okay, all the books on this site are liked; I don't have to read the reviews, then, or even waste my time on the site!" as I would already know the outcome. If a book doesn't appear on that type of site, then that's interesting and I'd investigate further.
   And I'll be honest that I usually don't use book review sites for choosing books to read. I've found my enjoyment or critique of a book is rarely influenced by someone else's review. Where reviews come into play is in the description of the book and if that makes it sound interesting enough to give it the first quarter of the book to decide whether to continue reading.