Book Talk

Book Talks

Picking a Topic

 My topic for the book talks as science fiction and fantasy novels that are in part something else. I had been thinking of some of these books as I had posted various topics. However, there were a few other topics that I had considered first. I considered doing book talks on superhero books. For this reason, my practice book talk was a superhero book. I own several, and some would be interesting to book talk. However, as a reasonableness check, I looked at whether the library owned any of them. They owned very, very few. I had considered doing book talks on three new science fiction books. This was in part to give me a reasonable excuse to read Like a Mighty Army by David Weber. This would fit with a couple of other books that I had read recently as well. I held the book in my hands, briefly, but one of the patrons in the branch got his name on the hold list first. At that point, the books that I had been thinking about for other reasons seemed a good idea. So, I shifted the topic to books that were a little harder to categorize.

Aside from the normal process of gathering information, this particular project needed an actual copy of the books. This was actually a limitation, as some books that I considered were only available as electronic copies from the library. This is a small thing, but it is something that will make book talks more challenging in the future. I actually had considered some a work-around for this, but I decided to stick with something where the physical books were available.

The Practice Book Talk

My practice book talk was enlightening. I had written it out fully and attempted several times to record myself using that talk. It really did not work well. There were several long dead spots, and the prepared talk just did not seem to work. For this reason I did the talks extemporaneously. However, I did do some of the talks in multiple takes.

The other problem I had was trying to write the way that I would actually talk. A spoken book talk should be fluid, but a written book talk can be edited and corrected extensively. Something recorded live is a different matter entirely.

The other odd problem I had with the practice was holding the book facing the camera; the result looked (and felt) somewhat silly. I contrived a stand to hold the book. It was cheating, but the result was better than the practice book talk.

The Technical Aspects

As part of this project I installed “Movie Maker” (a free program). Also, I set up a YouTube account. The process for editing the video was not hard to make out, but the options seemed somewhat limited with the capture settings. The built in camera seemed to have several assumptions, and many of them appeared to be wrong. Movie Maker did not seem to have any way of correcting those false assumptions.

There were a couple of interesting aspects to the filming. Owing to my lack of coordination with attempting to hold the book while talking, I set up a stand to show the book with me in the frame. It was more visible than my prior attempts.

While giving the book talks, I know that I add far too many “ums” and restarted my train of thought several times. I would happily switch both of those habits off if I only knew where to find the toggle.

Book Talks at Garfield Park

I thought about how books talks would work for me in the library. It would be possible (unlikely, but possible) for me to do a book talk in the computer lab. In that case, if I follow how I prep for other things, I would prepare a Power Point presentation with the information. While there are some extemporaneous events during the class, I tend to use Power Point even with relatively small classes to make sure that I don’t miss any relevant point. Further, its use might tend to make a small class feel more real (to the participants). For a book talk, it would like focus attention away from the book (or me) onto the screen, but I would probably do it that way anyway.

Outside of the computer room, that would be a different matter. In that case, the likeliest forum in our branch would be sitting around the table where patrons use laptops. In that case, the setting would be small and informal, and I would likely go through the books off the cuff there as well.

If I were to attempt a video book talk at Garfield Park, there are a few things I would do to try to make the attempt successful. First, I would choose a time when patrons are not in the branch. That would likely be a Saturday morning before opening. Second, I would use the branch iPad. I believe it has a better camera. (I suspect it has a better set of starting assumptions, also.)

Of all the ways I might do a book talk at the branch, a video book talk is the likeliest. I am presently a social media admin. My role has normally been to assist in resizing photos or converting files into pictures so that they can be posted.  Prepping video for posting would be a natural extension of what I have done before. However, performing for a video book talk on a regular basis would be stretching.