Crake
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Saturday, July 26 2008
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Though the group's starting point may have originally been "YA books that adults should read" it has developed into something that facilitates a few of other needs as well. I think that a good number of the active participants in this group are teachers, parents, and booksellers who are just looking for solid and intriguing recommendations for their students, children, patrons and perhaps themselves. Some members hope to reminisce about their favorite reads from their YA years while encouraging others to read something that they may not have heard of before. Some of the books on the group shelf may not be considered to be of great technical merit or as challenging as adult books, but if they offer an interesting style or unique point of view it is generally welcomed.
I do not really see "junk" on the group shelf (although I haven't felt compelled to go through all 640+ titles yet), just a great chaotic variety of YA literature. It's true that such a broad selection of books under one topic is not the best way to organize information, but without the ability to sub-categorize under topics that meet this group's particular needs, there's not much to be done about it. It's going to be a big mishmash of different tastes, reading levels, and genres until Shelfari is able to support further personalization. I agree with your point about the need for more explanation when it comes to recommendations, but this could be said for all of Shelfari. More reviews and more specific reviews would be more helpful to everyone, but some cannot articulate their opinions...or won't. I've seen many reviews all over Shelfari that consisted entirely of "I loved it!!!", which is super and all, but less than inspiring and not very informative.
If you would like to challenge a title for a specific reason, that could start off an interesting debate. The book probably won't get removed from the shelf, but the resulting discussion could educate many people about its particular merits and flaws. At this point, with such a long running group that has so many members, the best way to get results in a hurry is to start a very specific discussion topic or even suggest another reading group, such as the recent one focusing on "Rats Saw God".