Week 11 Prompt Response

For me ebooks and audiobooks are utilitarian.  Ebooks are convenient and audiobooks are an efficient way to ingest books I don’t feel I have time for otherwise.  I am even pretty comfortable listening at 1.5 times the original speed of the recording.  However, I have a friend who mostly only reads audiobooks and seems to have strongly formed opinions about narrators.  I’m not sure what all of his appeal factors might be but there is something about Mediatore’s “audible presentation” appeal factor at work here (2003).  
  
This new appeal factor specific to audiobooks is kind of fascinating, though for me, really hard to quantify.  If a reader really likes a narrator it’s pretty easy to set them up with other books read by that narrator, but how do you find read-alikes?  Maybe it works to identify the level of celebrity a narrator possesses.  Some readers enjoy and some stories might be invigorated by a famous personality.  For example, I really want Morgan Freeman to continue to be able to give me directions on the Waze app (but I think that feature has been discontinued), but if Morgan Freeman tried to read a Thomas Mann book to me it might take me out of it too much.  Some stories benefit perhaps from a lower profile celebrity or sometime performer with talent in the area of performance but with less unique flair that might distract from what the author is trying to accomplish.  But “audible presentation” isn’t just about the narrator and their ability to “characterize” and capture the tone of the book with their voice, it includes musical flourishes, sound quality, and track length among other aspects (Mediatore, 2003).  These unique aspects of audiobooks are all suddenly production details that add in to the variability of a reader’s experience of a text that we used to think of as mainly the author’s.  Suddenly we can’t think just about the textual appeal factors that we’ve relied on, we’ve got to think about this new appeal factor, audible presentation, too.  

Ebooks experience a similar effect in the ability of the reader to change aspects of the textual experience they’re having, though since these are solely under the control of the user and their device it’s even harder to track.  Things like font size can affect pacing, font color can affect tone, not to mention the lack of a tactile experience of the progress one has made in a book through the heft and visual thickness of each half of the book and how that affects the sense of pace (Dunneback, 2011).  For example, I used to predict the “perp” in Law & Order based on how far through the episode we had progressed.  (It’s never the suspect that’s brought forth in the first twenty minutes, they spring it on you in the last few minutes.)  This is an aspect of the genre and because I have a wall clock and the show starts on the hour I can adjust my expectations of the plot.  This is much less so when the consistent variable of start time and the measurement device of a wall clock are compromised or taken away completely.  This is also true of the physical feel of a book.  I’ve totally sat and looked at the last third of pages I’ve yet to begin in a book and surmised, “Hmm.  The third act…”  These sorts of orienting tactics within a plot or genre are part of the comfort and craft of genre fiction.  Ebooks take much of this away and for this reason may work for different genres better than others.  I wonder if it’s less fun to read a plot-bound Mystery as an ebook with few physical reminders of your progress than it is to read a Fantasy as an ebook that simply keeps spawning the “landscape” you’re interested in at the touch of your finger (Saricks, 2009).

Works Cited:

Dunneback, K. (2011). E-books and Readers' Advisory. Reference & User Services Quarterly, (4), 325.

Mediatore, Kaite. (2003). Reading with Your Ears: Readers' Advisory and Audio Books. Reference & User Services Quarterly, (4), 318.

Saricks, J. (2009). The Readers' Advisory Guide to Genre Fiction. Chicago, IL: American Library Association.

Book Annotation-Fantasy

Author: Ursula K. LeGuin

Title: A Wizard of Earthsea

Genre: Fantasy

Publication Date: 1968

Number of Pages: 182

Geographical Setting: The Archipelago, Earthsea (fictional place)

Time Period: NA

Series: The Earthsea Cycle, Book 1

Subject Headings: Fantasy, Magic, Wizards, Fiction

Appeal Terms: Classics, Fantasy fiction, High fantasy, Flawed, Introspective, World-building, Atmospheric, Suspenseful, Compelling, Richly detailed

Plot Summary:

Sparrowhawk, whose true name is Ged, is born the youngest child of a bronze smith in the northern reaches of the world of Earthsea.  Early on Sparrowhawk shows a natural ability for wizardry and works a fantastic feat of magic that saves his village from armed invaders when only 12 years of age.  Later Sparrowhawk is sent to be educated on the Isle of the Wise and there, in pride and hatred of a schoolfellow, uses his as yet immature abilities to work a spell that nearly costs him his life and allows a creature from the land of the dead to cross over to Earthsea.  Through a series of adventures Sparrowhawk comes to realize he must face the creature or be turned to its evil will, becoming a force for destruction and death in the world.

LeGuin’s book exhibits many aspects of the fantasy genre.  Central to the story is the power of magic, which is Saricks’ main defining feature of any fantasy story (2009).  This is revealed in the title and even the first few lines of the book that speak of wizards and magical creatures like dragons.  Beyond that, though, there are several other aspects found in A Wizard of Earthsea that root it in the Fantasy tradition. 

The book speaks at length about the idea of balance and equilibrium in the world and establishes through these discussions the “relational” nature of the story’s main character, Sparrowhawk, and his magical abilities to everything else in the world (Saricks, 2009).  LeGuin also gives us a complex character with flaws in Sparrowhawk, but also one that is assuredly “good” versus other forces that are assuredly “evil,” another hallmark of Fantasy (Saricks, 2009).  Lastly, LeGuin’s book has an “affirming” ending set in a world that “never could be,” while supplying details of the setting that “ground the story” while also “world-building” around a core of magical powers (Saricks, 2009).   

Fiction Read-Alikes:

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

For those interested in Fantasy Classics, Tolkien’s book, much like LeGuin’s, is a must-read.  Sharing a similar quest-like story line and appeal factors relating to the Fantasy genre as well as World-Building, Bilbo Baggins, the reluctant adventurer, serves as a nice counterpoint to Sparrowhawk, the over-eager young wizard.

Flyte by Angie Sage, Septimus Heap, Book 2

A story of friendship and danger revolving around the use of magic and the young wizard’s apprentice, Septimus Heap, Sage’s book shares themes of facing one’s fears and qualifying oneself for one’s destiny with LeGuin’s book.  Flyte also shares the appeal factors of Fantasy Fiction, High Fantasy, World-building, and Suspenseful with A Wizard of Earthsea.  Though with more of a sense of humor than LeGuin, Sage’s series promises a long immersion in a world apart from our own seen from multiple perspectives much like LeGuin’s Earthsea Cycle.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter, Book 6

Another classic of Fantasy, though more modern, the story of a young wizard discovering more and more of his ability while operating under a heavy doom ties this book closely to LeGuin’s.  Sharing the appeal factors of Fantasy fiction, World-building, Suspenseful, and Compelling the plot of Rowling’s book weaves tragedy, self-discovery, and action/adventure around a core of magical spells, creatures, and schoolmasters not unlike LeGuin’s 9 Masters of Roke and the Archmage.

Nonfiction Read-Alike:

Merlin: the Prophet and his History by Geoffrey Ashe

Ashe’s book delves into the magical stories of the medieval world, cataloging and organizing folklore about Merlin, the Arthurian wizard.  The book also follows the thread of the real life of Myrddin Emrys, the Welsh prophet, upon whom many of the stories of Merlin seem to be based.  This anthropological work, though concerned with facts and myths from an objective outside view, promises to open up another world of thought and history much like Fantasy does in the fiction realm.

Work Cited:

Saricks, J. (2009). The Readers' Advisory Guide to Genre Fiction. Chicago, IL: American Library Association.

Book Annotation-Historical Fiction

Author: Edward Rutherfurd

Title: New York

Genre: Historical Fiction

Publication Date: 2009

Number of Pages: 862

Geographical Setting: New York, NY

Time Period: 17^th century to 21^st century

Series: NA

Subject Headings: New York (N.Y.), History, Fiction

Appeal Terms: Family sagas, Historical fiction, Large cast of characters, Intricately plotted, Plot-driven, Leisurely paced, Strong sense of place, Descriptive, Richly detailed

Plot Summary: 

Though it’s not clear early on if a single family will become the through-line for the city of New York in Rutherfurd’s novel, it is clear that the author intends to render history into an intimate story of major events seen through the eyes of characters and families that would have been on stage in New York at the time.  Beginning with a prosperous fur-trading family, the van Dyck’s, and adding in the Master’s, the Hudson’s, and the Caruso’s among others as he moves along, Rutherfurd weaves a tale that follows the city from when Wall Street was actually a wall to the trains of Park Avenue to the day the World Trade Center was brutally attacked and destroyed.  With a powerful sense of place and the ever-marching hands of time this story attempts to put into perspective everything the city has been and what it has the potential to be in the future.

Other than the literal fact that Rutherfurd’s book is written about people in a place removed in history from the author’s “lifetime or experience” other details that set the novel firmly in the Historical Fiction camp are its enormous length and leisurely pace (Saricks, 2009).  At 862 pages the book never hurries forward but quietly seeks to put each major event that comprises its overall plot into a character-based context.  Readers get subtle and not so subtle history lessons at every turn, even down to where New York City’s five boroughs get their names, while also being drawn into the challenges and trials each character faces; from being sold back into slavery to the frenzied cell phone calls to loved ones on September 11, 2001.  The “wealth of details” and “world-building” (this being supplemented by several maps) the novel employs are typical Historical Fiction characteristics (Saricks, 2009).  Although Rutherfurd’s novel doesn’t provide a list of characters or a family tree as some Historical Fiction novels do, it still is an example of the “Family Saga” that is often a detail of Historical Fiction (Saricks, 2009).

Fiction Read-Alikes:

Forever by Pete Hamill

Covering a similar stretch of time and set on the island of Manhattan, this book is a title that  could expand readers of Historical Fiction horizons through its use of a ghostly, semi-immortal narrator among other Urban Fantasy trappings.  Hamill’s novel shares the appeal factor of Richly Detailed as well as being leisurely paced and follows the rise of New York City to its present day status as a metropolis much like Rutherfurd’s novel does.

Dreamland by Kevin Baker, City of Fire series, Book 1

Like Rutherfurd’s novel Baker’s novel has a Family Saga aspect, though more as a microcosm.  Following a newly arrived immigrant’s rise through New York City’s underworld around the turn of the 20^th century the novel captures famous persons of the time as well as major events in feminist and labor history.  Baker’s book also shares the appeal factors of Historical Fiction, Leisurely-Paced, Strong Sense of Place, Richly Detailed, and Descriptive with Rutherfurd’s novel and shows an era of development in New York City as much as any other character in the novel.

Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow

Doctorow’s Historical Fiction novel would also expand readers horizons a little with its Literary Fiction and Classic Fiction attributes.  Set mostly in New York at the beginning of the 20^th century Doctorow’s novel also follows a family story including famous personages and the development of America as a whole.  Sharing the appeal factor, Descriptive, the names, places, and facts of Doctorow’s novel should mostly scratch the itch of Historical Fiction readers. 

Nonfiction Read-Alike:

Jerusalem by Simon Sebag-Montefiore

Though widely removed in historical expanse and culture from Rutherfurd’s novel this “biography” of the city of Jerusalem seeks to capture the major events that formed this part of the world much like New York.  With an aspect of a Family Saga, Sebag-Montefiore also traces his family’s history that is somewhat intertwined with that of Jerusalem’s.  Sebag-Montefiore’s Richly Detailed, Accessible “History Writing” appeal factors also overlap with many aspects of Rutherfurd’s novel in that Sebag-Montefiore attempts to open up the tomes of history in an appealing way to laypersons much like Rutherfurd uses fiction to accomplish the same thing. 

Work Cited:

Saricks, J. (2009). The Readers' Advisory Guide to Genre Fiction. Chicago, IL: American Library Association.