Last Returned
Our library system uses an app called Libby for e-book borrowing. You can search for a title on the app or browse a category OR browse the last items returned to Libby. In other words, it’s like GoodReads except you’re seeing what’s available now that other people are done with it.
Popular stuff ends up on that list — new releases — but interesting older books end up on there, too, and enter into a strange loop: person one checks out, reads, and returns an old Nick Hornby book. The person two sees this book on the list and says, “High Fidelity! I haven’t thought about that book in years.” And then they check it out and the loop keeps going with each new person perusing the recently returned list, seeing this old book, and checking it out themselves because they figure someone else found it worthy to spend their time reading.
Unlike the genre lists, I usually know every single book on the recently returned list because, again, they tend to be popular books. And if they’re not popular to begin with, they become popular because they keep looping around again.
It would be cool if our physical library had a bookshelf like that. They have a new release section where you can see what’s hot at the moment because it’s new. But it would also be cool if they put returned books on a special set of shelves for a few days before moving them back to their proper place.
I love peeking at what other people are reading.
Do you ever choose books to read just because you see other people around you reading it?
9 comments
Ooh this would be such a cool shelf. It’s one thing I miss now that everything is digital. I remember always checking the last check out stamp and thinking it cool when I read something that hadn’t been checked out in year. Like rediscovering something the collective mind may have forgotten about. I also now want to check our library app to see if something similar.
I know that some libraries actually have this shelf! I think it’s so cool. And I absolutely read what other people are reading. I love taking my daughter to her piano lesson at the teacher’s house, because the piano teacher (and others in her family) are all avid readers. There are always books just laying around – books I’ve never heard of or maybe haven’t thought of lately and I always leave there with a list of new books to read.
At this stage of my life, I probably find the majority of the books I read because someone else I know is reading them (or plans to). I am on Goodreads and follow all 7 people in my neighborhood book club, along with 20+ other friends, most of whom have similar taste in books to mine. . . or at least similar enough that if they enjoy a book, there is a high probability that I will enjoy it, too.
I don’t know that seeing that a stranger read a book would necessarily spur me to check it out, but seeing that like-minded friends read (and liked) a book will. Oh, and conversely, I have removed books from my “to read” list if one or more friends have shared that they didn’t care much for them. Life is too short for me to read every book I’d like to, so I need help winnowing down my “to read” list.
That’s such a cool feature. I use Libby all the time but I don’t see that option. I am always interested in what others are reading.
I love th Libby app and really enjoy selecting my reads based on what others are reading – I have found some real gems that way especially when I’m struggling to find a book that catches my interest.
… isn’t that what the reshelving carts are for? I can’t be the only person who sneaks a peak when these are out.
My library uses the Overdrive App, and I wish it had this feature! Though my to-read list is so long, I don’t really need any other distractions!
I sometimes do.
Before books and music went digital, I used to love looking over a person’s book and CD collection to see what they enjoyed reading and listening to. It provided common ground and/or interesting conversation. I miss that.
When I was tutoring at the library over the summer, the library in the town where I teach had this actual display! There was a shelf-y table in the front, that I passed every day on my way to the tutoring room, and it was called “Recently Returned — See What Others Are Reading” and it was FASCINATING! It wasn’t all super popular stuff (I am actually less likely to read something if EVERYONE is reading it and people are saying “YOU MUST READ THIS BOOK,” I hate the Oprah and now Reese Witherspoon stickers for this reason even though it’s not logical). It drew my eye every time and I took out several books from it that I probably wouldn’t have read or come across otherwise. Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert was on that shelf, and I LOVED that book. I haven’t seen this shelf at the other branches I go to though, but I hope it catches on!