connecting people with books

today, a homeschooling mother came to the reference desk and told me that her family loves to read books together and asked if i had any good reading recommendations. joy! this is my favorite kind of question to answer. so, i took her to the shelves and introduced her to some of my most favorite series. generally, once i’ve given people about 3 options, i stop because otherwise they get this glazed-over look on their faces and they can’t decide which book to take first and we both end up feeling frustrated. so, when i asked the woman (after she had three books in hand) if that was enough, and she said, “no, you’d be surprised!’ i was delighted. i kept throwing book after book at her with honest reviews of each one (some of them i love, some of them i have parts that i love and parts that i have reservations about recommending) and she said, “this is great! keep giving me titles–i don’t know what shifts you work and i don’t know the next time i’ll have access to your advice!” so i told her my name and assured her that she could always ask for me if i wasn’t at the desk and she said, “oh, aren’t you the one who created that lemony snicket read-alikes booklist? i remember seeing your name at the bottom of the bookmark, but i didn’t know who you were! now i’ve got a face to put with the name.” wow! she remembered my name from the bottom of a bookmark i’d created like 4 months ago! i’m not sure why this struck me as completely amazing (maybe because i just assume that everyone just throws bookmarks away?), but it made me feel just the tiniest bit famous.