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Science fiction is that demonic creature lurking in the depths of every human subconscious waiting for the chance to emerge and destroy, with ecstasy, mankind's literary taste. It condemns the reader to an endless array of spaceships, hyperdrive, alternate universes, and alien beings — the really fun things in life. Unfortunately, not all readers or critics hold this view. To many literary critics, science fiction is something to keep in the closet, ignore, and generally not discuss in front of frail women or young children.

Despite the social, educational and therapeutic benefits of book clubs, little is known about which books participants are likely to have read. In response, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the public bookshelves of those that have joined a group within the Goodreads social network site.

Books listed as read by members of 50 large English-language Goodreads groups – with a genre focus or other theme – were compiled by author and title.

Recent and youth-oriented fiction dominate the 50 books most read by book club members, whilst almost half are works of literature frequently taught at the secondary and postsecondary level (literary classics). Whilst J.K. Rowling is almost ubiquitous (at least 63 per cent as frequently listed as other authors in any group, including groups for other genres), most authors, including Shakespeare (15 per cent), Goulding (6 per cent) and Hemmingway (9 per cent), are little read by some groups. Nor are individual recent literary prize winners or works in languages other than English frequently read.

Although these results are derived from a single popular website, knowing more about what book club members are likely to have read should help participants, organisers and moderators. For example, recent literary prize winners might be a good choice, given that few members may have read them.

This is the first large scale study of book group members’ reading patterns. Whilst typical reading is likely to vary by group theme and average age, there seems to be a mainly female canon of about 14 authors and 19 books that Goodreads book club members are likely to have read.

Almost all libraries collect fiction. Of course the nature, scope, and organization of the collection varies with the type of library and its clientele. In this column scholars, fans, and just plain readers of diverse fiction formats, types, and genres will explore their specialty with a view to the collection building needs of various types of libraries. In addition to lists of “good reads,” authors not to be missed, rising stars, and rediscovered geniuses, columnists will cover major critics, bibliographies, relevant journals and organizations, publishers, and trends. Each column will include a genre overview, a discussion of access to published works, and a core collection of recommended books and authors. Janice M. Bogstad leads off with a discussion of science fiction. In the next issue of Collection Building, Ian will focus her discussion on the growing body of feminist science fiction with an article entitled, “Redressing an Interval Balance: Women and Science Fiction, 1965–1983.” Issues to follow will feature Kathleen Heim on thrillers, and Rhea Rubin reviewing short story collection building. Should you care to suggest an area or aspect of fiction collection building for discussion or try your hand as a columnist contact the column editor through Neal‐Schuman Publishers.

What is it about academia anyway? We profess to hate it, spend endless amounts of time complaining about it, and yet we in academia will do practically anything to stay. The pay may be low, job security elusive, and in the end, it's not the glamorous work we envisioned it would be. Yet, it still holds fascination and interest for us. This is an article about American academic fiction. By academic fiction, I mean novels whosemain characters are professors, college students, and those individuals associated with academia. These works reveal many truths about the higher education experience not readily available elsewhere. We learn about ourselves and the university community in which we work.

These papers describe the development and evaluation of a new classification system for fiction based on an analysis of users' formulations of needs. Users of fiction generally do not require specific books to be precisely identified. Their criteria for accepting books are related to a combination of several different features, such as subject matter, emotional experience, readability etc. Previous attempts to design alternative classification schemes for fiction are reviewed, and the inadequacies of these systems are discussed. New retrieval tools such as a systematic card catalogue and alphabetic indexes have been constructed on the basis of a multi‐dimensional classification system. A number of search tests in laboratory conditions have been conducted in order to evaluate the different search tools. Finally, in this second paper, issues like differences between concept identification in fiction and non‐fiction, recall/precision, vocabulary control etc., are raised and suggestions are made for future experiments with subject approaches to the searching of fiction.

States that there has been a recent explosion in the publication of reference works in the field of African American studies which indicates the mature field of scholarship being achieved in this area. Provides a bibliographic guide for those wishing to identify and use research tools for studying African American literature.

For readers' advisory librarians, genre literature can prove to be difficult collection management areas. The literature itself has rarely been defined in anything but the negative (“not great literature,” “not of lasting quality”) and yet it makes up a good deal of the attraction for many patrons to the public library, and gives great circulation support to their collections. Percentage‐wise, it gets the least attention for the most benefits. Many budgets are based on circulation figures, and much of the commendable relationship with the public is based on readers who devour genre literature. Why is it that genre readers are given such short shrift for their loyalty and devotion? Some of the problem lies in the traditional view of genre literature and the rest in the new view of collection development.

This paper aims to explore the scope of fiction writing in academic research as a way of studying “messier” aspects of the process, such as emotion.

The author reflects on her “lived experience” of conducting doctoral research, five years earlier and re‐searched for the paper, by composing a fictional narrative that aims to capture some of the emotional and other complexities of the process.

The author demonstrates that fictionalisation opens possibilities for a deeper probing of the emotional aspects of the research experience. Her conclusion is that this method can help researchers to think about the processes of writing, reflexivity, and emotion. It can also be useful to academic writers more widely, by showing how fiction writing techniques can convey some of the more complex aspects of their day‐to‐day activities.

The paper can act as a model for extending academic writing skills in the area of fiction, by introducing characterisation, plot and dialogue.

This paper offers an original account of the emotions of the doctoral writer, situated within current discourses on emotion, fiction writing and methodology. It will be of value to scholars of arts, humanities and social sciences.

Purpose ‐ This annotated bibliography serves as a guide for collection development and evaluation and readers' advisory tools for librarians and for any interested reader. The purpose of this paper is to locate and describe print and electronic resources pertaining to the horror genre for scholars and patrons, as well as librarians collecting in this area.Design/methodology/approach ‐ This bibliography surveys reference sources published in the past ten years, in order to provide an overview of publications focusing on the horror genre, and serves as a guide to understand this genre.Findings ‐ Reference resources in horror encompass the genre specifically and broadly, usually focusing on classic fiction and short stories in earlier years and fiction novels, magazines and online magazines in recent years.Originality/value ‐ The resources covered in this article survey both long‐standing reference resources as well as newer publications in the field. While not necessarily comprehensive, it provides patrons, researchers and librarians with a survey of useful resources, with factual information as well as a critical perspective in the discipline.