Librarian on a buying spree

I've got about $2k to spend on "leisure reading" at Barnes and Noble -- paperbacks, travel books, nonfiction, manga, etc. I've got the NY Times Book Review, but what are some really fun titles I might look for?

I'm buying for an inner city community college student body, but also for faculty and staff.

I figure you folks would be my best source. Let's have it!

well there are twenty books Tagged Fun read:^)

http://www.librarything.com/tag_allbooks.php?tag=fun%20read

Im not sure about your students ages .

but assuming their 16-21 ish

of that list I would consider

Snow crash But i might prefer his Diamond age
The Dan Brown Not for me of course:^)

and Ender's game

Things that arent tagged fun read?
I capture the castle
Angry Pyjamas
A Brother's Price
Shards Of Honor- lots of good stuff by this author
Doomsday book
Guys and Dolls
City of Pearl- first in series
The Anubis Gates
A fall of moondust
The speed of DarK
Hard time Lots of good stuff by her too.
Basket case
Undead and Unwed fluff and none the worst for that

Thanks! I'll let you know what I come back with.

Another idea is to go the "You saw it at the movies..." theory of books.

Eragon, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, The Da Vinci Code, etc. etc. etc.

Entice them that way. :D

I also get money to spend on books for work occasionally. The way we choose is to look at lists like book prize nominations, or even Richard & Judy's book club recommendations (I suppose Oprah would be the US equivalent) and select things from there. It's all too easy for our library staff to choose what we want, but we all have our own tastes - these national lists and prizes are a good way of getting a broader representation of what a wide range of people might like.

Have you got an existing library? - put them all into LT and just start buying down the Suggesters list of course!

Perdido Street Station is a great, transporting read. I would suggest China Mieville in general as an author. Also, for fun, light reads, the Elizabeth Peters Amanda Peabody mysteries are so great (I listen to them on tape and the characters are wonderful).

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke, any book by A.S. Byatt and Rebecca West, Cross Creek by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, any book by Orhan Pamuk.

Not sure about Jonathan Strange, personally. That book was insanely long and while it had a good plot... meh.

Well, it is a matter of taste, obviously, but Simon mentioned Dan Brown, and at this point Susanna Clarke is DEFINITELY a better writer!

>10 aluvalibri:

I very much enjoyed The Da Vinci Code and I couldn't get past page 50 of Jonathan Strange.

Everyone's tastes are different.

yes they are, and that is the beauty of it!

If it's just fun leisure reading you're looking for, I'd suggest the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich. Very funny adventures of a hapless Trenton bond enforcement officer/bounty hunter, with a colorful cast of characters. I worked for a few years at a small city community college, and I can think of a number of students I knew who would have enjoyed these. The Carl Hiassen books seem like good choices, too. And for this audience, I think it's worth having a look at some graphic novels. Good luck, and enjoy shopping at B&N!

Oh yes How could I missout Janet Evanovich, And I suspect Mercedes Lackey would go down well.

Oh yes How could I missout Janet Evanovich, And I suspect Mercedes Lackey would go down well.

Oh yes How could I missout Janet Evanovich, And I suspect Mercedes Lackey would go down well.

I suspect the unshelved bookclub choices would tempt quite a few readers.

http://www.overduemedia.com/bookclub.aspx

I'd suggest Barbara Hambly in both her fantasy and historical detection incarnations;
Judith Tarr who writes great fantasy and somewhat fantastic historic fiction
Nora Roberts is insanely popular, along with her J. D. Robb incarnation
Jasper Fforde can lead to other reading
If you can get them Roger Taylor writes several good standalones, Simon R Green is also quite good.
Lois McMaster Bujold is very good, for both SF and Fantasy
Guy Gavriel Kay is amazing and several of his books are standalones or related but not sequels
My husband would kill me if I didn't mention David Weber and Harry Turtledove who writes some interesting alternative history books

If you're buying series try to make sure you have some of the earlier books in the sequence. Fantasticfiction.co.uk can be useful (but not definitive!) for working out what book comes where.

Perhaps biographies or books about popular sports figures or musicians might be of interest to your students.

Thank you, one and all. I knew you'd be a great resource. I got the latest Janet Evanovich, Terry Pratchett and the latest few days worth of Nora Roberts (3 books at least). We always try to buy a few Mercedes Lackey, but here's the thing (apply this same note to W.E.B. Griffin, John Sandford, and dozens of other authors: How do I know which is the latest? It's impossible for me to open 25 Tom Clancy novels to figure out which one came out since May 2006 (the last time we had a buying spree like this.)

I'll post the link to what we got once I can get it on the web. Once again, thanks a million.

Do any other librarians on this site get to spend money like this? Even if it is only 2k?

>How do I know which is the latest?

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk

Great website for just that.

Fantastic website, morphidae. I'll remember that next time I go.

Ebsco's Novelist or Gale's What do I read next? could provide chronological lists. You may have home access to either, or both, sources through links on a library web site.

Yes Barbara Hambly is definately a fun read. Her most fun is Bride of the Rat God but i doubt it is in print.

I'm glad you're looking for suggestions because I have plenty :-)

Twilight and New Moon by Stephenie Meyer

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist so long as no one is offended by the "F" word.

Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan is a very fun read.

Angus, Thongs and Full Frontal Snogging is a very, very funny book and is the first book in the Confessions of Georgia Nicolson series by Louise Rennison

Shadowland is the first book of the Mediator series by Meg Cabot. I LOVED this whole series of books.

Secrets by F.M. McPherson is not a fun book in a cheery way but it was very interesting.

The Guardians of Time Trilogy by Marianne Curley starting with The Named

I wish someone would give me $2000 to spend at Barnes and Noble *sigh*, maybe I should change vocations LOL I guess I'll stop there for now, but I'll stop back if something else jumps out at me.

I'm surprised Good Omens hasn't been mentioned yet. I'll second Snow crash, but Diamond Age isn't a work I'd recommend to someone not used to Stephenson, same with Cryptonomicon. Zodiac on the other hand was fun and pretty easy to read.

"Movie books" like Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings are probably very good for those that are "new" to bookreading, and show them how much better then the movie they are. Might add Bourne to the list too :)

Robert Ludlum also some other decent thrillers, as does Tom Clancy and Michael Crichton.

The Knights Templar Trilogy/Saga of Arn Magnusson is well worth a read, if you manage to find it translated.

I forgot to list the first book that jumped out at me when I read the initial post.

Saint Iggy by K.L. Going

What fun!

I have a similar responsibility at our college library, though with a MUCH smaller budget. I find that the NYT Book Review is quite good for nonfiction things, but not so good for the fiction end. Usually I start with Barnes & Noble's genre recommendations, and read the reviews -- we have the additional burden of having to have our picks be of "literary merit" or on the best-sellers' lists -- I'm quite fond of Kirkus, because they don't hesitate in identifying turkeys.

I also try to stay away from series, trilogies, etc. unless I know that I can get all the books in the set -- it's frustrating to only be able to read books two and three in a four volume series! Watch out particularly for mysteries and romance -- they LOVE doing serials, and a lot of them, esp. in romance, are simply crap.

(I don't mind beach read-type crap -- I'm talking about stuff with prose so purple it could dye a warehouse of Prince's wardrobe.)

You might keep an eye out for nonfiction stuff in areas like sports, knitting, music, etc. -- they can be tricky to buy for, but they'll bring in readers who would avoid more "booky" books.

Good luck, and have fun!

prose so purple it could dye a warehouse of Prince's wardrobe

ha ha ha ha.....greenfrog, that is one of the best I have heard in quite a while. Thank you for the good laugh! :-))

I had a list of books I sent to someone stuck in bed for months, the ones I remember included:

Shining Through by Susan Isaacs
Boy's Life by Robert McCammon
The Gold Coast by Nelson Demille
Ghost Story by Peter Straub
Glittering Images by Susan Howatch