The Most Useful Thing You’ll Ever Make In School:



NAME___________________________

The Angry Duck Presents

The Most Useful Thing You’ll Ever Do In School:

Your Personal Reading List

Activity 1: Define your interests

A. Make a list

The only way to come up with a reading list you’re interested in is to know what your interests are. It’s strange but true that most people don’t really know exactly what their interests are. This sad state of ignorance is not suitable for any student at EHH, so let’s start out by making a list. On the lines below list at least 10 topics, events, activities, people, places, etc., that you are interested in finding out more about.

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Use your interest list to find lists of good books

Using Google and a few of your top interests, locate lists of the best books in those topics and genres. Use a search term like “best books about flying squirrels” (if you’re interested about our little furry, airborne friends, for example). If that doesn’t work, make it more general, like “best books about small animals.” Search the internet until you find at least two lists that relate to your interests. Write the name of the list and the website addresses here:

|List Name: |

|Website address: |

|List Name: |

|Website address: |

Activity 2: Start with a book you know and love

One good book

It’s almost impossible to start a reading list from scratch. You need to find at least one book that you liked—or would like (based on the recommendation of someone you trust). Think back through your whole reading life—any non-picture book will do. If you don’t remember one, show your list of interests to your friends, family members, teachers, or librarian for ideas.

If you are truly lost, spend some time browsing the website for the Young Adult Library Association. They have reviews, lists, and all kinds of articles about different topics and genres. Find their website here:



Once you locate a book you loved (or think you would like), write the title and the author of the book here:

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Branch out using the tool of the corporate devils, (okay, it’s actually pretty good…)

Now that you’ve got one or two books to work with, use the tools listed below to branch it out. Some of the methods listed below may seem more useful than others. When you make your own list on the last page, you can use whichever techniques you like, but this is a chance to try all of them.

Locate the book you wrote under Activity 2A on . Make sure you’re looking at a recent version of it. (If it doesn’t have a price, it’s not a current edition!)

I. “Customers also bought...”

Scroll down below the details of the book to the section of the page labeled “Customers who bought this item also bought….” Click on 3 or 4 of the links listed in this section. Write the title and author of one or two additional books you located here that seemed interesting:

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II. “What do customers ultimately buy after viewing this item?”

Scroll down until you see the section labeled “What do customers ultimately buy after viewing this item?” Click on several of these links until you find another book that looks good enough to add to your list.

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Editorial and user reviews

For every book you think you might want to add to your list from Amazon, check the editorial and customer reviews to see if this is the author’s best book, or of there are other books in this genre or by this author that you might want to check out.

Amazon “Listmania”

Scroll down to almost the bottom of the page and find the Listmania links. Click on at least 3 Listmania links and browse through the books listed on the page. These are lists created by customers who read a lot and have recommendations for people who like those sorts of books. Add to your list any books you see that interest you, and then repeat Activities I.-IV. for those books.

Activity 3: Locate the books at a book depository near you

Choose one book title you’ve located and find its call number and location at the Salt Lake City Public Library, or the County branch nearest your home. For the SLC library, log on to



For all other branches, find their catalogue by Googling the name of the branch name. Use the catalogue search functions to search by title. Notice that the results will often come in various formats (books, audiobooks, DVDs, etc.) and various locations. (The main branch of the library where most of the books are is at 4th South and 2nd East.) Write the title and library call number (looks something like this: fic D724 be) for one book in the space below:

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Congratulations! You now have the power to find books that don’t suck. Use it wisely as you fill out the list on the back of this page. Happy hunting!

Activity 4: THE LIST!

Use all of the techniques and sites you’ve listed above to create a high-interest, personal reading list in the space below. List at least 15 titles for full credit, and more on another page for extra credit. Remember, you will actually be required to read several of the books listed below, so make sure they’re good ‘n’ interesting.

|# |Author |Title |Why chosen? |SLCPL (or other branch |

| | | | |library) call number |

|1 | | | | |

|2 | | | | |

|3 | | | | |

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|14 | | | | |

|15 | | | | |

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Instructions: Make your way step-by-step through the following activities. Each activity will explain one method of discovering books that may interest you. Go through each activity, then use all of the activities to create a reading list of at least 15 titles on the last page.

Kids don’t read enough! Quack!

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