[Publib] RA Help (Humboldt Library)

[Aragon, Sean]

I have never read the book "Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia" by Elizabeth Gilbert.  If I had been asked that question I hope I would have done a reference interview to see if I could narrow down the question to something more concrete to search for.  The patron initially asked for some book(?) "that evoked the same emotional response" - which was? -  in her as Eat, pray, love ... Has she read or seen anything else that evoked those same type of responses?  What specifically was it about the book that she liked or disliked?  Had she read any other books by this author?  If yes, what was her response? Depending upon her answers, I might have pursued some areas to see what kind of response I got from her.  I would have also shown her our list of Reader's Advisory websites on our library's subscription database page - fresnolibrary.org/reference.html.  In "What to Read Next" I found the following descriptors for this title: Subject(s): Food, Meditation, Spiritualism, Spirituality, Travel; Setting(s): Rome, Italy; Mumbai, India; and Bali, Indonesia.  I didn't find anything which matched most of the descriptors.  In "Literary Reference Center" - a book review site - I read what others had thought about the book, and this gave me some clues on where to look further.  I might have approached the patron about books on the different characteristics of divorce: narratives; psychological and spiritual aspects, etc.  I might have also asked my coworkers if they had read the book and what they recommended.  I went to Amazon.com, and under the section "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought" they had a few suggestions e.g. "Love in the time of cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Hope this helps,

Sean Aragon
Reader's Service Supervisor
Fresno County Public Library
Fresno, CA 93657
saragon at fresnolibrary.org

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