You can judge a book by its cover

I attended Michael Gannon's workshop on Reader's advisory yesterday afternoon at the LaVale Library. First, this is the most fun I have ever had at a workshop! Michael has the 10 of us laughing for the entire 2 hours. This was the first time that I realized how many clues you can actually get from the cover of a book. He told us what to look for on the cover to get an idea of the genre of the book. For example, bloody knives will be hard core mysteries. Michael also suggested that we read outside our comfort zone occasionally so we can have an understanding of what a romance or science fiction book is all about. He also suggested we remember to ask 2 important questions when a customer asks for our help in finding a book: "What is the last book that you read?" and "What did you like about it?". I think the thing that I will remember most, as simple as it sounds in hindsight, is - popular, bestselling authors, the ones that the customer refers to when they say "I've read everything", have their names on the cover in larger letters than the title of the book. Aha!