It is part of human nature to be influenced by external propaganda and other people’s opinions. This is especially true with advertising, via television, radio, or internet. How many times have you seen a commercial for a typical candy bar and then an hour later have a craving for it? Well this goes for books too. I remember even as a child being persuaded to read certain books after watching the popular television show “Reading Rainbow”. Which, btw, I wish was still around for my daughter.  Then there was the campaign for getting people to read by showing posters of celebrities reading.

It amazes me to see how popular book advertising has become over the years. In the past we were limited to books only being mentioned in the New York Times Book section with its ever popular bestseller lists, as well as other newspapers like the Wall Street Journal or Chicago Tribune.  Now with 21st century technology the topic of  books is appearing everywhere. There are numerous websites (GoodReads and LibraryThing) for avid book readers like myself to discuss books with other book lovers and to see what books authors have written or what number you are missing in a particular series. Besides these informative websites you of course have all of the individual books blogs people are creating, this one being a good example

Magazines are even going the route of advertising books. Oprah Winfrey’s magazine includes book reviews. More Magazine recently included an interview of Kathryn Stockett, the author of “The Help”. The one that surprised me the most though, is my subscription to Country Living which is a home decorating magazine. Amidst the article about a neglected schoolhouse renovated into a Catskills cottage and how to make spooky Halloween decorations for your living room was an article about the Nancy Drew mysteries. Yes, the teenage girl sleuth from my childhood. The article gave a synopsis of all 56 novels and the history of how Nancy Drew was created. By the end of the article i didn’t care about how to upholster my living room chair or how to carve a pumpkin the right way I just wanted to go to my local library and take out a few Nancy Drew novels. Check out this link to view the vintage Nancy Drew books.