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Only three books left in ye old Favorite Book Poll I Obsess Over, and guess what one of them has to be. And I mean HAS to, because I've seen too many other people comment that they voted for it for it to have not gotten enough votes to make the list at all. It got ten points from me alone after all! I am so proud of my dear book! It has done far better than I ever expected it to, at the beginning of the countdown!
But one thing I find consistently either fascinating or annoying, reading the comments to these posts, is that many people can't tell the difference between What I Like, What is Good in General, and What is Popular. Apparently some people based their predictions on either the perceived Quality of the books or even on just This is MY Favorite so it has to be on here! and then they get offended when books show up in a different order than that.
But these books aren't ranked by quality-- necessarily; they're ranked by how MANY people loved them, not just at all, but enough to VOTE for them! Just because a FEW people love a book, even a very good book, doesn't mean LOADS of people love the book. Enough to vote for it at least. So "but I love it!" isn't basis for prediction! I know very well "Ghosts I Have Been" is not going to be in the top three here, and I really didn't have much hope for it making the list at ALL even when I went ahead and voted for it anyway (it will have been the only one of my ten votes not to make the list, assuming the Insane doesn't happen in the next three days). I'm not shocked about this, and I'm not moaning about how nobody has any taste nowadays. She just asked for our top ten favorites, and I could hardly leave it off, because it's one of MY favorites!
And I can accept that a lot of other people can love a book I don't love. I'm sorry, but I don't care for YA Judy Blume (her middle grade stuff I do like). I don't swoon over Bridge to Terebithia. Heck, Charlotte's Web is GREAT, but it's not anywhere near the top of MY list of favorites. Nonetheless, I fully expected Margaret to make the list, Terebithia to be HIGH on the list (ended up lower than I expected), and Charlotte to be one of these last three, if not the very top. Because it's not all about what I love, it's what LARGE QUANTITIES OF PEOPLE love!
Yes, there's a certain very popular YA series out now that I have not read and have no interest in reading, mainly because I a) hate vampires with an absurd personal distaste, and b) hate romances. Well, angsty romances. Romantic comedy is okay. Or even Awesome if your name happens to be Jane Austen. But as I was saying, so a book COMBINING THESE TWO THINGS is NOT going to make it to the top of my very massive TBR list. But that didn't stop me from SPECIFICALLY picking a book for the library last week simply because I knew it would appeal to the MANY SLOBBERING fans of that series who are patrons here. At the same time, I also ordered Diana Wynne Jones' latest. Okay, that was primarily for me. But I can't let ALL book selection be based on my OWN tastes, because this isn't the Amy Library, it's the PUBLIC library!
So anyway, just had to get that off my chest.
I have been meaning to post several things about real life, but I always think of those things when I Don't Actually Have Time to Post. In fact, there was a real life thing I meant to post publicly two MONTHS ago, and though I did post it Friends-locked, I suspect my reference above to ordering books for the library might have confused those of you reading this on Facebook, an RSS feed, or lj-but-not-friended by me, because I never TOLD you I now have some Collection Development duties here at the library. I AM in fact working several additional hours a week on... da da da... CHILDRENS AND YA SERVICES! Yay! With two other part-time women, who are actually the ones RUNNING most of the actual PROGRAMMING. My specific duties are still not particularly specific. Except I get to order stuff occasionally! And I made some rather pretty displays last week! And a great bookmark for Summer Reading! and stuff.
But now it is time to go, so any other Real Life, Literary, Or Random Other Thing I have to write about will have to wait yet another day.
But one thing I find consistently either fascinating or annoying, reading the comments to these posts, is that many people can't tell the difference between What I Like, What is Good in General, and What is Popular. Apparently some people based their predictions on either the perceived Quality of the books or even on just This is MY Favorite so it has to be on here! and then they get offended when books show up in a different order than that.
But these books aren't ranked by quality-- necessarily; they're ranked by how MANY people loved them, not just at all, but enough to VOTE for them! Just because a FEW people love a book, even a very good book, doesn't mean LOADS of people love the book. Enough to vote for it at least. So "but I love it!" isn't basis for prediction! I know very well "Ghosts I Have Been" is not going to be in the top three here, and I really didn't have much hope for it making the list at ALL even when I went ahead and voted for it anyway (it will have been the only one of my ten votes not to make the list, assuming the Insane doesn't happen in the next three days). I'm not shocked about this, and I'm not moaning about how nobody has any taste nowadays. She just asked for our top ten favorites, and I could hardly leave it off, because it's one of MY favorites!
And I can accept that a lot of other people can love a book I don't love. I'm sorry, but I don't care for YA Judy Blume (her middle grade stuff I do like). I don't swoon over Bridge to Terebithia. Heck, Charlotte's Web is GREAT, but it's not anywhere near the top of MY list of favorites. Nonetheless, I fully expected Margaret to make the list, Terebithia to be HIGH on the list (ended up lower than I expected), and Charlotte to be one of these last three, if not the very top. Because it's not all about what I love, it's what LARGE QUANTITIES OF PEOPLE love!
Yes, there's a certain very popular YA series out now that I have not read and have no interest in reading, mainly because I a) hate vampires with an absurd personal distaste, and b) hate romances. Well, angsty romances. Romantic comedy is okay. Or even Awesome if your name happens to be Jane Austen. But as I was saying, so a book COMBINING THESE TWO THINGS is NOT going to make it to the top of my very massive TBR list. But that didn't stop me from SPECIFICALLY picking a book for the library last week simply because I knew it would appeal to the MANY SLOBBERING fans of that series who are patrons here. At the same time, I also ordered Diana Wynne Jones' latest. Okay, that was primarily for me. But I can't let ALL book selection be based on my OWN tastes, because this isn't the Amy Library, it's the PUBLIC library!
So anyway, just had to get that off my chest.
I have been meaning to post several things about real life, but I always think of those things when I Don't Actually Have Time to Post. In fact, there was a real life thing I meant to post publicly two MONTHS ago, and though I did post it Friends-locked, I suspect my reference above to ordering books for the library might have confused those of you reading this on Facebook, an RSS feed, or lj-but-not-friended by me, because I never TOLD you I now have some Collection Development duties here at the library. I AM in fact working several additional hours a week on... da da da... CHILDRENS AND YA SERVICES! Yay! With two other part-time women, who are actually the ones RUNNING most of the actual PROGRAMMING. My specific duties are still not particularly specific. Except I get to order stuff occasionally! And I made some rather pretty displays last week! And a great bookmark for Summer Reading! and stuff.
But now it is time to go, so any other Real Life, Literary, Or Random Other Thing I have to write about will have to wait yet another day.
