Despite working on 49th Shelf for years I continue to discover cool little features of the site (e.g., did you know that when you Browse by Category, you can choose Most Recent or Alphabetical for how your results appear? Or that clicking on New Books brings you to lists and features you might have missed recently? If I'm still discovering the site, it's worth devoting a series of short posts on fun ways to use it.

I Want What I Want

Say you're looking for something specific. You want a book on this, or by her, or only this title please and thank you. Here's what you can do:

• Use the Search box in the top right-hand corner of every 49th Shelf page (under the topmost Control panel where you sign in). As soon as you begin to type in here, you’ll be prompted to define where precisely you want to search: in books, authors, blog, reading lists, or publisher.
• Hit Browse by Category in the Navigation Bar in the top portion of each page. For example, you might be looking for books on sustainability and green design, or graphic novels, or coming-of age-fiction. You would find these under Browse by Category.

Here are some results I just got by using the search box on 49th Shelf:

• Every book Lynn Coady has published in Canada
• All blog posts with a "funny" theme in them
• All books that Invisible Publishing has on the site

And here are some results I got when I did some Browsing by Category:

• 477 books in Regional and Ethnic Cooking
• 19 books on Adoption and Fostering
• 25 books of Erotica

Don't forget when you get results pages that you can view by Alphabetical or Most Recent, and that you can change your view mode from very visual to text-based (right near the options for Alphabetical or Most Recent).

Mess It Up

One of the critiques of online book stores is that they're not messy enough. They're so one-dimensional, slick, and frontlist-oriented that you can't get your hands dirty and assemble and reassemble books you want to buy, or shove your coffee behind a book to take sips between long moments checking out the blurbs and jacket copy of a promising title. As Craig Taylor wrote in an article called "Shelf Awareness" in the Globe and Mail:

"You could, I suppose, search for any title online, but you couldn't arrange them into that messy portrait I used to run my eyes across at Bygone [the bookstore he liked that closed last year]."

On 49th Shelf, you can find and make a "messy portrait" by looking at the lists we've assembled and that knowledgeable, book-loving members of 49th Shelf or authors themselves have put together. It's word of mouth in action, all in one place—great picks from people whose taste you respect.

Here are just a few examples:

• Books for Big-Thinking Kids, Tweens, and Teens: On this one you'll find kid-oriented books on social activism, pirates, unsolved mysteries, living with disability or anxiety, medieval times, why there are wars, slavery, Canadians in WW2, human rights, yoga, inventions, technology, women rebels, and courage in general. Messy enough? Except there's a common theme: one of these books is likely going to appeal to the kid you care about who thinks big thoughts.
• Latest Relit Award winners: The Relit Awards, founded by Kenneth J. Harvey (his book, Inside, is a must-read) celebrates the best new work released by independent publishers in Canada. The awards are a great complement to the big-money book prizes in Canada (or an antidote, some would argue) and those recognized are worth checking out. Here are some recent Relit contenders.
• Books That Made Me Laugh Out Loud in Public: Kathleen Winter, author of the acclaimed novel Annabel, contributed this little gem.
• Bar Brawl Writers: John Vigna, author of the much-lauded short story collection Bull Head, picked some writers he'd want to have his back if all hell broke loose in a bar where he'd just mouthed off about hockey to a big cowboy dude. Kerry Clare, our editor, naturally summoned a female version of the list with help from 49th Shelf friends on Twitter and Facebook.

There are zillions of great lists on 49th Shelf. Just go to our page Book Lists and poke around there for a bit (you can search lists by keyword or contributor on the right-hand side of the page). You can also create your own list (instructions on the right-hand side as well).

Our newest lists (and newest releases, often organized into categories) can be found on our home page in those lovely big visual panels. Hover over or click on any book jacket to reveal more information about it, and click on the linked book title to get to its individual page in the site. At the bottom of our home page panels, there are arrows to move you to other books and lists.

To make lists (and do a lot of the other fun stuff we'll cover in subsequent posts), you have to be a member. Check out how to join us here if you haven't already.