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Do Not Shampoo Your Books

Last Thursday turned out to be quite an interesting day.  It turned out that Toronto’s subway system had signal problems which meant that a large number of people (myself included) had to find alternative methods to getting home … in other words … walk.

Well a few of us ended up at a Shoppers Drug Mart and as I walked into the Shampoo aisle — I immediately thought of the problem we often have when picking out books that we would actually want to buy.  There are so many brands and types of shampoo but how do I know what is for me?  Of course my first thought is, how many different types of shampoo do we really need?

Photograph by Clean Walmart

Okay so as a rather typical guy, it really isn’t too difficult for me to pick one out, nor do I pay too much attention.  Why?  Well, there are labels that tell me the result or consequence of using the specified shampoo.  The price and time that I pay will likely guarantee me a result.  There are of course always exceptions.  Of course for the others — they like to look at packaging, colours, and other factors.

Well, let’s turn the discussion to books.  I walk into a bookstore (which I honestly admit is rare since my work and focus is primarily online) but my first reaction is that I am overwhelmed by the number of books.  How am I supposed to know what is right for me?

Your response is likely one of the following:

Read a bit of the book

Ask a bookseller

Talk to others (i.e. friends, family, colleagues)

Look for a familiar author

Look for a book cover that catches my eye

Read a review

My response to your response would be:

Why do I have to spend all that time and energy?  How is doing so going to provide me with a guaranteed result that will ultimately help me?  I realize not everyone is like me but I’m using myself as an example of the challenge of connecting the right book with the right reader.  I want to know that when I spend my money that I will be guaranteed to be satisfied for the time I spent selecting the book and the time I will spend reading the book.  Time is everyone’s most valuable resource.

Being able to relate to an author on a more personal level (i.e. common interests) and being able to find the information within a book that is most relevant to me is key.  On a more personal note, I’ve been more inclined to purchase a book when I have the opportunity to read an author’s blog or when I have the opportunity to find a chunk of a book that is most relevant to me via the Google Book Search.  Of course it’s not as simple as it sounds.

So what are we doing at Dundurn?  We’re now happy to begin having our authors blogging with us (Chris Rutkowski, expert on UFO phenomenon has already started!).  Our books have been available for you to search through via the Google Book Search engine for a little less than a year and we continue to add new titles so that people can find what is relevant to them in new ways.

Speaking of finding new things through new methods, check out Musicovery where you can discover music based on your MOOD, in addition to TIME (i.e. when it was released) and GENRE.

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