Chase Talks About NonFiction & Readers' Advisory, Matrix-Style

THE READERS’ ADVISORY MATRIX FOR CRYSTAL LAKE MEMORIES: THE COMPLETE HISTORY OF FRIDAY THE 13^TH BY PETER M. BRACKE

1.     Where is the book on the narrative continuum?

A mix (combines highly narrative moments with periods of fact-based prose)

2.     What is the subject of the book?

Films and film making - the book is about the making of the movies in the Friday the 13^th series.

3.     What type of book is it?

Oral history in interview style

4.     Articulate appeal

·      What is the pacing of the book?

The pace is fairly quick

·      Describe the characters of the book.

The characters are the real-life participants in each of the films including actors, production staff, directors, producers, etc.

·      What is the intent of the author?

To collect the definitive oral history of the film series.

·      What is the focus of the story?

The focus conveys the experience of how the films were made and what the participants experienced.

·      Does the language matter?

Yes - in that most of the story is done in oral history form taken from multiple perspectives

·      Is the setting important and well described?

The settings come from multiple perspectives so there are some conflicting reports. However, familiarity in the films helps make these clearer.

·      Are there details and, if so, of what?

Plenty of details describing budgets, scripts, special effects, acting, onset experiences, audience reactions, fandom, etc.

·      Are there sufficient charts and other graphic materials? Are they useful and clear?

Yes, they contain production stills, behind the scenes photos, production notes, advertisements, etc. that complement the narrative.

·      Does the book stress moments of learning, understanding, or experience?

The book leans heavily on delivering the experience from those who were a part of the making of the films. Although one does learn about the process of filmmaking in the process.

5.     Why would a reader enjoy this book (rank appeal?)

1.     Nostalgia

2.     Detail

3.     Characterization

Chase Talks about Audiobooks and EBooks

AUDIOBOOKS

My own personal experiences with audiobooks can be put into four separate categories: enjoyment, necessity, a solo road trip, and pure torture. My first experiences of audiobooks were pure delights. Of Gremlins movie tie-in books that Hardee’s gave out during the movie’s first run. (The audio for these can be found on YouTube.) Many years later in high school, I had procrastinated in reading The Old Man and the Sea until the last day, so I went to the library and got the abridged audiobook. I probably would have done better on the essay test had I not listened to the audiobook. Jumping ahead several more years, I drove out of state to attend training for work and brought along a David Sedaris book-on-CD narrated by the author and his sister, Amy. I had already read the book, so it was a nice companion for the trip. However, one thing eventually made me vow to never listen to an audiobook in a car again - my mom. She insisted that she only had about five more minutes left before it was over. It was 45+ minutes of wanting to jump out of the car while some flowery-speaking woman talked on and on. Just torture.
course, I’m talking about the read-along storybooks that came with a small, narrated record that chimed when it was time to turn the page. My favorite audiobook series has to be the

After our class readings, I noticed that my experiences lean strongly into the appeal factors of audiobooks. For instance, in the Gremlins series, the narration set the tone of the movie, which was at times light-hearted and other times dark. Light background music and different voices for speaking characters also added to the effect. With the David Sedaris audiobook, no one else but the author could narrate his works because his writings are a deep reflection of his personality. His tone and pacing are just natural. Plus, Amy Sedaris is a master of different characters, and they play well off each other. Now The Old Man and the Sea had no appeal factors for me. First of all, the story was not something I was interested in, but the story moved so slowly as the narrator read in an over-serious way. Maybe some splashing of water or shark noises in the background would have helped. That experience along with my mom’s selection shows that the major appeal factors of print books are still at the heart of audiobook appeal factors. Two of the four I mentioned had an interest for me to begin with while the other two probably would not have appealed to me with any narrator or effects.

EBOOKS

I once was helping a woman at the circulation desk find some titles that she had to read for her evening class. We were able to find most of them while others she would have to wait for. I did a quick search in our Overdrive catalog to see if there were any overlaps. When I suggested to her that some of her titles were available there, she recoiled in disgust. She told me that she liked the feel of the book as she lifted one up and down. She loved the smell of books as she opened one up a waved her hand between the pages and her nose as if she was smelling the aroma of pasta sauce. I really tried not to laugh, but it was very mellow dramatic. EBooks had absolutely no appeal factor to her and her tactile affection for a physical relationship with books.

I, on the other hand, prefer to read eBooks. I use the Kindle app on my iPad, and many of its features appeal to me. My most favorite is that it detects the reader’s reading speed and gives them an estimate of how many minutes are left in a chapter or with a tap how much time is left for the entire books. That’s great when you tell yourself that you’re going to get in one more chapter when you should be going to bed. “It’s only a five-minute chapter.” The app also allows the reader to highlight passages and make notes for easy retrieval. Sometimes I’ll mark character introductions because I sometimes forget who people are. Even if I didn’t, I can search for terms to go back to something I missed. Highlighting lets you look up definitions to words as well as bringing up possible Wikipedia pages for quick reference. Pages can also be bookmarked so you can go back to something you felt was important. I was once told by a patron that they didn’t like eBooks because they couldn’t read the font, but readers can change the font and its size. They even developed a font with dyslexic readers in mind to make reading easier. The only physical books I purchase are ones that are of interest to me (certain authors, series, etc.) as well as collectible (anything on my favorite TV shows, movies, and collections.) There is room in my world for both physical and electronic books.

Chase Talks About the Cover to Cover Book Club

Yesterday, I attended the Cover to Cover Book Club’s monthly book discussion group at the Boone County Senior Services, Inc. building in Lebanon, Indiana. The facilitator of the club is Kay Martin (totally related,) and the group has 30 members which about 15 to 20 people typically attend. One of the missions of the club is to read and experience different genres and subgenres. This month’s selection The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, which fell under the nonfiction genre of memoirs with a subgenre of coming of age, as explained by the facilitator.

I actually arrived at the event early because I was recruited to help set up. I met with one of the other members, and our jobs were to set out the Goldfish crackers, make the coffee, and setup the table. I chose a seat off to the side because I was not going to be an active participant and preferred to just observe unobtrusively without taking credit for my pouring of the Goldfish crackers into a larger bowl.

There was about twelve participants at this particular meeting. They were all women who I would assume use and are familiar with the services of the Boone County senior’s center. (I wasn’t about to ask for the ladies’ ages or make any assumptions on that.) All of the attendees seemed familiar and comfortable with each other as they had a lot of catch up banter before the discussion officially took place.

The facilitator announced the official start of the discussion after giving time for any late stragglers. She made a couple of announcements and mentioned that a couple of the regulars weren’t going to be there. Then, she introduced me - first on a personal level and then told them my purpose for being there. Then she pulled out a notebook where she had written extensive notes on the book. I noticed that other people also had brought notebooks and/or had pages in the book marked. She began by explaining the genres that this book fell under before launching into her opening question for the group. The questions she asked throughout the meeting were both open-ended, multiple part, and yes/no questions that lent themselves to further discussion. At one point, she said, “Tell me about what you thought the title of the book means,” which served the purpose of making the participants reflect on the overall meaning of the book. The line of questioning allowed them to discuss themes and symbolism as well as relating what they had read to other books. The group was essentially offering readers’ advisory for each other based on the type of book they were reading.

I will note that I had not read the book, but I was familiar with the story from having seen the author on an episode of Oprah and other interviews. This helped me understand some of the thoughts and reflections that the group was being asked about and commenting on.

The Cover to Cover Book Club members were active participants right from the beginning. There seemed to be no hesitation to speak from the majority of the members right out of the gate. They were respectful of whoever was speaking at the moment without talking over or interrupting the speaker. Many times, there were expressions of agreement such as, “Oh, yes,” and “Mmm hmm.” I noticed that the facilitator and the members often praised each other on the points that others were making. I was hoping to witness a disagreement to see how that was handled, but everyone seemed to be on the same page. I wondered if that was because this was a nonfiction title. However, they did make inferences into how the real-life characters may have been thinking or what led to some of the decisions they made. I also noticed that no one openly criticized the book.

Sometimes someone would mention an occurrence in the book that would inspire them to tell a personal anecdote about themselves. These moments would also cause the members to speak in small groups amongst themselves. For instance, a discussion about a butter and sugar mixture had them all talking about variations of something similar that they used to eat, which broke off into different segments of conversations.

The facilitator only had to bring the group back to the topic a few times. She employed a device where she had pulled quotes from the author’s mother that the facilitator called “Momisms.” She had a list of these quotes and would often go back to them to brought the group back to the topic of the book.

One participant was more outspoken than others. She often was the first to answer and had commentary on just about everything said. I didn’t find her pushy or notice anyone seeming upset at her, but it was obvious that she was one of the more dominant members of the club. The facilitator mentioned to me later that she tries to reign her in to let others speak. Regardless, the points that this woman made were well thought out and added to the discussion in a non-disruptive way. On the flipside, I noticed that one woman didn’t seem to speak as much. I couldn’t recall anything that she had spoken, but I noticed at one point that she began to speak but didn’t get her words out before someone else started to speak. She didn’t try to contribute after that moment. That could be an area that the facilitator should take notice and direct other members in a non-threatening way such as, “I believe so-&-so was about to make a point.”

The meeting lasted a little over an hour. The next book was announced. The facilitator said that she wanted to do a classic and that the group was able to get a good deal on the books for the next discussion. After I carried a few sacks of books in from the car, the group was told that they were going to read Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. The group were excited by the title and loved the way the cover of the book looked. Before they adjourned, we took a few group photos and went our separate ways.