To think the library shouldn't stick rainbow stickers on any book by a GLBT author

[GothAnneGeddes]

I know it is probably well intentioned, but it just seems a really clunky way of doing it.

Do we need a rainbow sticker on Stephen Fry's autobiography? And if you didn't know an author was gay, would it matter if you found out they were?

You're welcome

My local's a gay pub. Step-Mil thought the rainbow flag and pink Union Jack outside were to be "jolly". She was when I explained it wasn't a naice little gastro pub but actually a proper boozer... for gays!

Love it KM!!

YANBU

I don't see why a sticker is necessary or why those books need to be singled out

I am sure MillyR is right and it is well intentioned 'genre' stickering.

But it is hideously clunky and crass (would they put yellow stickers on books which feature 'the Jewish experience' !?)

These stickers would presumably put many people off reading a good book (teenagers worried about what friends or parents might think for example, and hetero people thinking 'that's must not be for me' etc..).

You

Good thread OP - night night all.

...opps got cut off there.

You are not being unreasonable I meant to say!

Rosemaryandthyme - are you seriously suggesting that books featuring gay sex are only for gay people, or that the it is only the inclusion or not of graphic description of sex that would make a book part of the LGBT genre/ghetto?

Eh? just saying that a sticker can help some people find a book they like or avoid one they wont like - that's all.

Ok. Sarah Waters. Brilliant gay author, with amazing gay characters in her books. To suggest that she should be read because of this is beyond reductive. She should be read because she is an amazing author, with one of the best voices for dialect and period and place that I've ever read.

I am completely confused by people who feel books should be stickers because they have gay sexual 'acts' as Well. You don't often see stickers on books with straight sexual acts, after all

Some folks wont like accidently picking up a book that has gay sex in it, others will particularly seek these out - a sticker just helps people identify which is which.

Explict straight sex books could have stickers too I guess, just it was "gay week" in the OP'd libary I think.

I don't think there is any one particular reason why somebody should read a book. Different people will choose to read a particular book for different reasons.

I don't like picking up misogynistic books. But they tend not to be stickered.

what's it about the stickers that you find upsetting Wilson ?

I don't see any difference between gay explicit sex and straight explicit sex (but it's very handy to sticker explicit sex because my mum doesn't like reading it).

I see no difference between gay crime fiction and straight crime fiction (but please sticker crime fiction because I CBA with it).

If I'm in the mood for biography, I don't care if it's a gay person or a straight person (but it is handy if I know it's an biography)

So RT I think it's not that I have an objection to stickers, just to stickers that relate to sexual orientation. Because they are just a little bit silly.

How do you choose which books to read, Wilson?

I'm not being argumentative. I'm genuinely interested in how other people choose books. I don't mean instead of choosing by stickers. I mean, how do you choose what type of content you want to read?

agree WF.

Just back on the thread, haven't had chance to read it all yet but:

I swear, I am real. PM me and I'll tell you the name of the library in question.

Even "Room" has a sticker on it and AFAIK, the author is gay but the book about heterosexuals so it's not even about content.

The little synopsis on the back or fly-leaf is usually enough to give you an idea of what it's about, if you don't know the author/genre.

Most of them seem to have No 1 Crime/horror/ misery culture/
auto-biog/romance besteller stamped on them somewhere!

Oh Lord Milly I dunno! I tend to stumble on an author I like, then buy everything else they've ever written. I do like genres, e.g. I read Phillipa Gregory, so then read loads of other things about the Tudors, then went backwards and forwards from then. I do feel Im reading in a rut at the moment though, so all suggestions gratefully received

Room!!!!! Ok that is just odd. Brilliant book but there is no gay content at all. So maybe they're just trying to highlight the contribution of gay authors? But that's still weird!

PS - read Room!

There are books like the Bloomsbury Good reading Guide that tell you what you might like next if you like a particular author, but I have never found them useful.

I had a look at the description of Room and I think I might find it a bit too distressing.

It's a tough read but I did love it and so did my book group (and its unusual to get agreement there!)

Gothannegeddes - that is quite bizarre. Are you going to raise the issue with the Chief Librarian? can you tell us the local authority that is doing this?

Rosemaryandhyme - I don't think libraries should waste their time putting stickers on books to warn people that they might not like them. What's the worst thing that happens if you take out a book you don't like? Er, you bring it back and take out another?

How can a person know that they won't like any books with gay sex in it? They might not think that a book of gay erotica was for them, but that doesn't mean that they should also avoid reading The Colour Purple (for example).

The only 'good' reason for someone avoiding all books with gay sex in them on principle seems to me to be because it would offend their bigoted views about homosexuality. Worrying about offending bigots is one thing that libraries shouldn't be bothered about.

Public libraries are NOT doing this (applying stickers) in order to warn people off LGBT books. No, they are trying to "showcase" a genre in order that more people will take out books. Sometimes they will get it wrong with particular titles.

And everything that millyR said, too.

www.wolverhampton.gov.uk/leisure_culture/libraries/information/lgbtm.htm