Nancy Pearl, probably the world's only librarian with her own action figure, regularly talks books on NPR's "Morning Edition" and is author of the "Book Lust" series. Her recommendations send readers to bookstores, and sometimes publishers back to their presses. She's in Minnesota this week as part of the Club Book series, talking about her latest book, "Book Lust to Go: Recommended Reading for Travelers, Vagabonds, and Dreamers" (Sasquatch Books, $16.95).
Between her website (nancypearl.com), Facebook, tweets and speaking engagements, she's a literary lantern who lights our way through the dark canyons created by the overwhelmingly prolific publishing industry. She talked from her home in Seattle about the complex process of choosing a book, and the beauty of intuition.
Q The average Facebook user spends seven hours on the site each month. Do social media take time away from reading, or a way to learn about more great reads?
A Ah, I think it's more the former. I think it's possible to use social media like Facebook or Librarything or Goodreads, but on a lot of the sites, people just ask, Have you read this yet? or Should I read this? In general, it's a real time-sucker-upper. I started tweeting about a month ago because it's a tool for how I see my role, which is to try to introduce people to a book they might not have heard of ordinarily.
Q Do you own a Kindle, Nook, or just lots of bookshelves?
A I have an iPad. If I were to buy a dedicated device -- and I'm a Mac person all the way -- I'd buy a Nook, because you can check out books from your local library for free [if your public library offers that service].
Q You've been asking readers for a new term to describe fiction that's realistic, but dabbles in fantasy, such as Isabel Allende's "The House of the Spirits." Are you getting much response?
A I am! It started when I was looking at my list of books for "Morning Edition," and many were what we tend to call magical realism. I'm always looking for a term the ordinary reader will understand intuitively, and that term doesn't do that. I think people see "magic" and think "Harry Potter" or something. The best suggestion so far is "elastic realism" and I thought, "Wow, that's intuitive."
Q In general, you'd like to ditch genre classifications, though, right?
A I would like to see the end of genres as we know them. They tend to ghetto-ize certain books. When libraries or bookstores separate their books into categories, people head to their favorite genre and tend not to move two feet in a different direction. People say I want the same reading experience, but that doesn't depend on genre, although we think it does. If it's page-turning you want, you can find it in the thriller section, but also in the regular fiction section.
Q. How do we choose books?
A. It's a complex process we don't really think about. You have to take into account your mood, what's going on in your life, do you have the time to sort of plunge into a 19th-century Anthony Trollope novel, or are you going on a plane ride? You have to meet some books at the right time in your life.
Q Your Rule of 50 is helpful, suggesting we give a book 50 pages before deciding whether to give it up. But your addendum -- if you're over 50, subtract your age from 100 and use that number -- is that a factor of aging?
A Absolutely! There are more books and less time.
Q Your new book is for travelers, vagabonds and dreamers. Do they have different literary needs?
A I did want to appeal to real travelers, people who are actually going to Crete. But I also wanted something for vagabonds, or the kind of traveler I would like to be. And then, for people like me: I'm not a traveler, but I've been to so many places through the books I've read. One of the neat thing about the indexes is that one of them is a geographical index, maps of the globes with page numbers that go with different sections, so you can choose from the Antarctic to the Amazon.
Q How do you want people to regard your recommendations?
A I think that what I bring is a lack of snobbishness and a great deal of enthusiasm, and the strong belief that we like what we like. I can name 10 best books of this year, but I'm not going to make any pretense that you're going to love those books. A good book is a book that you like.
Kim Ode • 612-673-7185
