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Recently, a friend was telling me about her youngest son (the 3^rd of four children) who never seemed very interested in reading. The mom often reads to all four kids at the same time in the evening and he listens, but never reads independently at other times…until school started this year and the teacher required silent reading in the classroom. He discovered he loves to read, just not fantasy books—that’s what the family reads together based on the interests of the older brothers. Turns out he’s more of a realistic fiction kinda of guy.

It’s important to know what you like and why. This anecdote is the perfect representation of what librarians do all the time. We call it reader’s advisory (or RA for short). We have to believe there’s a book for everyone, it’s just finding it.

There are a variety of tools to help, but nothing beats the library’s catalog and a librarian’s familiarity with the collection. The classic question to start a reader’s advisory interview is, “what was the last book you read that you really liked?” Or, alternatively, “tell me about your favorite book.” But how does that help the librarian? She’s secretly using her superpowers to decode what she knows about the book you just mentioned.

I’m fond of librarian Nancy Pearl’s RA method. It starts with four basic assumptions. Readers read for one or two of four things:

1. Story
2. Setting
3. Character
4. Language

When you tell a librarian that you really liked that last John Grisham book, she knows you like a page-turner and are probably reading for story. If you mention Jane Austen, you’re probably reading for the character.

Of course, books and authors have a secondary appeal, too. And, most of us read for the secondary as well as the primary. So, Jane Austen is rich in setting, too (and language and story, but let’s not confuse ourselves—not every writer is Jane Austen!). Grisham writes a different kind of setting, but it almost always involves courtrooms and lawyers.

Personally, I read for character, then language. Anna Quindlen, Richard Russo. They are in my wheelhouse. When I pick up a potential book, I can usually suss out fairly quickly if it’s going to appeal to me. Does the description start with someone’s name and what they did? Is the title of the book a character’s name? That’s indicative of strong characters. Is it described as a “coming-of-age” story or bildungsroman? That’s the evolution of a character and makes me want to read that book.

This method of RA has another benefit, too. It can help you get outside your normal reading patterns. For example, I hardly ever read nonfiction, but, when I do, it’s biography. As someone who reads for character, that makes sense; biographies are about a character.

If you read for setting and relish atmosphere and foreign lands, you might also like travel writers like Paul Theroux or Bill Bryson. If you read John Grisham for setting, you might find commonalities in true crime (the 364s in the Dewey range). Like language? Try some poetry (811 in Dewey).

You don’t have to suffer through another fantasy fiction just because that’s all that’s being offered. Just ask a librarian for direction and you’ll have your next favorite book in your hands before you know it.

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