Five Ways to Browse Books in the Library

by Public Service Associate Juliana

Often, we come to the library looking for something specific – a book with a lot of buzz, something a friend recommended, one from our long TBR list, one we saw on #BookTok. What if we approached books in a different way? What if instead of a list of titles we browsed with a list of rules that encourage randomness? What if we weren’t attached to the outcome? What might we discover?

I happened upon a few fun ways to browse books while reading The Wander Society by Keri Smith. This odd, refreshing little book is filled with information and activities related to wandering, walking, observing, and putting down your phone. Smith makes a case for things we often don’t allow for ourselves: daydreaming, randomness, and boredom. She presents possible assignments, research, and field work for the reader to embark on.

There is one assignment specifically dedicated to “Library Wandering.” In that section of the book, she offers, “Some Ways to Subvert Your Browsing.” Maybe I’m bookish and biased, but I found this very exciting. I opened the book to the page number listed and ventured out into the stacks with a tote bag, curious to see where her suggestions would lead me.

1. “Find a book that interests you, and leave it on the shelves. Count seven books down from that one. Read that book.”

This suggestion is a perfect example of how Smith encourages randomness and nonattachment. I located a psychological thriller that looked interesting in the fiction stacks, The Marsh King’s Daughter by Karen Dionne. Instead of taking that one from the shelf I counted, like Smith suggests, seven books away from it and landed on The Dragon Man: A Detective Inspector Hal Challis Murder Mystery by Garry Disher. I’ve never in my life read a police procedural novel which meant this browsing experiment was already working, guiding me to a genre I wouldn’t ordinarily gravitate toward. I like mystery thrillers in the form of tv shows and movies, why have I never read one? Now was my chance. I slid the book in my bag and moved on to the next list item.

2. “Locate the first five blue books you see. Take those to a reading chair.”

This task was surprisingly easy and fun and is something I will try in the future with different colors. With the blue stack specifically, I decided I would take the books I selected to a chair and read the synopses to decide which ones to take home. I thought about challenging myself to commit to reading all of them, but this way of browsing adds a lot of weight to your bag and your reading load, should you choose to take all five. But with five to choose from, you’re likely to select at least one that really appeals to you. I took home Lily and the Octopus.

3. “Find a favorite book of yours. Look in the bibliography. Pick a book listed there. Find that book and read it.”

This was probably the most challenging and time-consuming suggestion. Not all books have a bibliography, so you might have to pull a few off the shelf before finding one. Once I found one with a bibliography, I needed to check the library catalog for listed titles’ availability. Braiding Sweetgrass, a favorite book of mine, has a long list of sources in the back. From that list I chose Grandmothers of the Light, a book about goddess stories, ancient myths and spirituality.

4. “Ask the librarian what his or her favorite book is. Locate it and read it.”

If you are a frequent flyer here at Bexley Public Library, you know our librarians have great reading suggestions. On the particular day I was browsing, I asked our librarian Leah what her favorite book is. She gave me two recent favorites. The Lido, which she said is “a feel-good read about people coming together that would appeal to many different age groups.” And The Reading List which she loved and keeps thinking about having a book club for — the initial meeting would be for the actual book and the following meetings for the books mentioned in the book. How fun would that be!

5. “Find an author with the same last name as you. Read the book. (If you can’t find one, locate the closest name to it.)”

This was my last task. I looked but discovered there were no fiction authors on the shelf that share my last name. So, I walked over to Biographies to check there. Again, none of the books featured my last name, so I chose one whose author’s last name starts with the same letter as mine. I’ve read and enjoyed other titles by Melissa Febos, so Abandon Me was a definite win.

Overall, I have to say, this was such a fun experiment! Smith offers these task ideas as suggestions, and from there you get to make/bend the rules. There is no pressure, no right or wrong way to locate books. Try every task, or don’t. Read every book you pull, or don’t. Feel free to challenge yourself to read them all. I might try it. I’d like to keep track in my reading journal and see how it goes. In the end, the point is to discover books that aren’t on your radar and maybe never would’ve been. It’s rewarding to find a new favorite author or that you like a genre you’d previously steered clear of.

What exciting discoveries might await you? Come wander the stacks and find out.