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Unshelved #7
Reader's Advisory
If Cheers had taken place in a public library it might have been something like the hugely popular Internet-only comic strip Unshelved. Follow the adventures of a young librarian named Dewey, his dysfunctional coworkers, and the people they're supposed to be helping. With no continuity and the best art and writing of the series, this latest collection is a great place for new readers to jump in and discover an unfamiliar side of a very familiar place.
128 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 2009
2 people are currently reading
144 people want to read
About the author
Gene Ambaum
18 books29 followersI write Unshelved with Bill Barnes. I've worked as a paper boy, auto mechanic, courier, English teacher, operations manager, teen services librarian, and staff development coordinator. I enjoy a wide range of graphic novels and am currently obsessed with the work of Lewis Trondheim, Emmanuel Guibert, Hope Larson, and Kazu Kibuishi. My favorite book without words is Owly The Way Home & The Bittersweet Summer by Andy Runton. My favorite book without pictures is Ursula LeGuin's A Wizard of Earthsea.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 38 reviews
July 15, 2025
I've been going through some boxes of comics from my collection and came across some old volumes of the Unshelved series, and I realized that I had let it fall between the cracks when I transitioned from buying comics to only reading them from the library. Fortunately, my local library has a few of the volumes I missed over the years, so I'll be catching up.
A good chunk of the book is the snarky character Dewey busting on foolish things the librarian patrons do and ask, and while that sometimes gets a little too mean-spirited and tiring it still brings a smile to my lips more often than not.
I was a little slow refamiliarizing myself with the rest of the cast, especially since they go unnamed for long stretches, but I got back up to speed and remembered why I liked reading about them before.
Toward the end of the book, it switches from the regular three-panel comic strips to a series of single-page book talks for 47 different novels, graphic novels, and kids' books (see the list below). Five of them are done by guest creators: Carl Sjostrand, Stephanie McMillan, Brad Guigar, Joel Watson, and Paul Southworth. I got a little bogged down at times in this section even though it goes pretty fast because the format of the pages is repetitive with a short plot synopsis usually followed by one or two quick opinions and a little joke. Honestly, it failed to pique my interest in any of the titles I hadn't already read.
Still, I enjoyed getting back into the series and look forward to getting into the next volume next week.
FOR REFERENCE:
Reprints Unshelved comic strips originally published on the Unshelved website from Feburary 17, 2008, to February 15, 2009, and ALA Cognotes newspapers in June 2008 and January 2009.
• Sharknife Volume 1: First Stage by Corey Sutherland Lewis
• The Golden Dream of Carlo Chuchio by Lloyd Alexander
• Dogby Walks Alone Volume 1 by Wes Abbott
• The Commonwealth Saga 2-Book Bundle: Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained by Peter F. Hamilton
• Spud by John van de Ruit
• The Electric Church by Jeff Somers
• Good Calories, Bad Calories: Challenging the Conventional Wisdom on Diet, Weight Control, and • Disease by Gary Taubes
• Magic Pickle & The Planet Of The Grapes by Scott Morse
• Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden
• Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
• Life Sucks by Jessica Abel
• Plush You!: Lovable Misfit Toys to Sew and Stuff by Kristen Rask
• Supermarket by Brian Wood
• The Day My Bum Went Psycho by Andy Griffiths
• Mike Nelson's death rat! : a novel by Michael J. Nelson
• How the States Got Their Shapes by Mark Stein
• Endgame, Vol. 1: The Problem of Civilization by Derrick Jensen
• Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy
• Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow
• Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat by Lynne Jonell
• Rock On: An Office Power Ballad by Dan Kennedy
• The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
• The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson
• Adventures in Oz by Eric Shanower
• The Somnambulist by Jonathan Barnes
• The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America by David Hajdu
• Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway
• Bunnicula: A Rabbit-Tale of Mystery by Deborah Howe
• Anathem by Neal Stephenson
• Olive's Ocean by Kevin Henkes
• Cubicle Warfare: 101 Office Traps and Pranks by John Austin
• Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams
• Hidden Talents by David Lubar
• Flesh House by Stuart MacBride
• The Road by Cormac McCarthy
• The Snow Spider by Jenny Nimmo
• Rat Life by Tedd Arnold
• Death Rites by Alicia Giménez Bartlett
• One Night Stands and Lost Weekends by Lawrence Block
• Shade's Children by Garth Nix
• Alan's War: The Memories of G.I. Alan Cope by Emmanuel Guibert
• Mathematicians in Love by Rudy Rucker
• Poop: A Natural History of the Unmentionable by Nicola Davies
• The Story of the Little Mole Who Went in Search of Whodunit by Werner Holzwarth
• Cacas: The Encyclopedia of Poo by Oliviero Toscani
• Debbie Harry Sings in French by Meagan Brothers
• Visibility by Sarah Neufeld
A good chunk of the book is the snarky character Dewey busting on foolish things the librarian patrons do and ask, and while that sometimes gets a little too mean-spirited and tiring it still brings a smile to my lips more often than not.
I was a little slow refamiliarizing myself with the rest of the cast, especially since they go unnamed for long stretches, but I got back up to speed and remembered why I liked reading about them before.
Toward the end of the book, it switches from the regular three-panel comic strips to a series of single-page book talks for 47 different novels, graphic novels, and kids' books (see the list below). Five of them are done by guest creators: Carl Sjostrand, Stephanie McMillan, Brad Guigar, Joel Watson, and Paul Southworth. I got a little bogged down at times in this section even though it goes pretty fast because the format of the pages is repetitive with a short plot synopsis usually followed by one or two quick opinions and a little joke. Honestly, it failed to pique my interest in any of the titles I hadn't already read.
Still, I enjoyed getting back into the series and look forward to getting into the next volume next week.
FOR REFERENCE:
Reprints Unshelved comic strips originally published on the Unshelved website from Feburary 17, 2008, to February 15, 2009, and ALA Cognotes newspapers in June 2008 and January 2009.
• Sharknife Volume 1: First Stage by Corey Sutherland Lewis
• The Golden Dream of Carlo Chuchio by Lloyd Alexander
• Dogby Walks Alone Volume 1 by Wes Abbott
• The Commonwealth Saga 2-Book Bundle: Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained by Peter F. Hamilton
• Spud by John van de Ruit
• The Electric Church by Jeff Somers
• Good Calories, Bad Calories: Challenging the Conventional Wisdom on Diet, Weight Control, and • Disease by Gary Taubes
• Magic Pickle & The Planet Of The Grapes by Scott Morse
• Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden
• Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
• Life Sucks by Jessica Abel
• Plush You!: Lovable Misfit Toys to Sew and Stuff by Kristen Rask
• Supermarket by Brian Wood
• The Day My Bum Went Psycho by Andy Griffiths
• Mike Nelson's death rat! : a novel by Michael J. Nelson
• How the States Got Their Shapes by Mark Stein
• Endgame, Vol. 1: The Problem of Civilization by Derrick Jensen
• Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy
• Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow
• Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat by Lynne Jonell
• Rock On: An Office Power Ballad by Dan Kennedy
• The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
• The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson
• Adventures in Oz by Eric Shanower
• The Somnambulist by Jonathan Barnes
• The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America by David Hajdu
• Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway
• Bunnicula: A Rabbit-Tale of Mystery by Deborah Howe
• Anathem by Neal Stephenson
• Olive's Ocean by Kevin Henkes
• Cubicle Warfare: 101 Office Traps and Pranks by John Austin
• Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams
• Hidden Talents by David Lubar
• Flesh House by Stuart MacBride
• The Road by Cormac McCarthy
• The Snow Spider by Jenny Nimmo
• Rat Life by Tedd Arnold
• Death Rites by Alicia Giménez Bartlett
• One Night Stands and Lost Weekends by Lawrence Block
• Shade's Children by Garth Nix
• Alan's War: The Memories of G.I. Alan Cope by Emmanuel Guibert
• Mathematicians in Love by Rudy Rucker
• Poop: A Natural History of the Unmentionable by Nicola Davies
• The Story of the Little Mole Who Went in Search of Whodunit by Werner Holzwarth
• Cacas: The Encyclopedia of Poo by Oliviero Toscani
• Debbie Harry Sings in French by Meagan Brothers
• Visibility by Sarah Neufeld
February 15, 2014
Another LOL year’s worth of work related fun at the Mallville Public Library involves: cell phone use in the library, abandoned kittens at the front door, “Bland Book Week,” generational and cultural clashes, how to behave at library conferences, and full color full page book “talks.” Plus readers who work in libraries get to hear YA Librarian Dewey’s snarky retorts to customers who come preloaded with an attitude that the rest of us know to save unverbalized until we make to the behind the scenes safety of the break room.
July 22, 2017
One of the best strips in this book involved looking up a book to see if it was actually in the library. The library held the book, but they did not know if it was circulating or not. In the determinate period before you look it up, it could both be there and not be there, and that is known as Schrodinger's CATalog.
September 30, 2018
If you live or work in library land, how could you not enjoy this comic series. Many of these were so true to the way things actually happen. Now we wouldn't treat people the way some of the staff treat their patrons, but you have to admit that inwardly you are thinking I would love to try that once and see what would happen.
September 26, 2020
Another great collection! As always, my favorite parts include the reader's advisory titles in the back, and the extreme sense of relatability from the comics themselves. Working in a library myself, I have to admit that this is not completely exaggerated.
November 14, 2016
To me these are just hilarious, especially if you work in a public library, or with the public in general.
July 21, 2018
The book talks at the end are still my favorite.
August 17, 2018
Anyone who has ever worked in a library will love this comic series!
February 17, 2020
More please.
January 21, 2023
Meh. Not that funny. One or two strips to laugh at, but overall more annoying than funny.
June 8, 2023
A pretty standard installment in this series, meaning it was good, but not great. No movement in the macroplot.
November 9, 2019
A series of comic strips that take place in a public library. Quirky characters and humorous situations.
May 19, 2013
Reader's Advisory is the seventh yearly compilation of Unshelved, a daily online comic strip set in an american library.
Written (under a pen name) by a real-life librarian who works in an undisclosed library in the Pacific Northwest of the U.S.A., Unshelved is a rather funny comic strip. The art is a little crude and it's probably of a greater interest to me because I work in a library (although it made me laugh even before I started working there). Also, I admit that this particular volume feels a little less funny to me, maybe because the novelty of a witty librarian in riduculous situations is wearing off and previous volumes had more continuity in the story of each strip as they were more or less following a general theme. I don't see that in Reader's Advisory as you have some stories or themes that go on only for two or three strips. However, after seven volumes it still makes me laugh, so I recommend it without hesitation (even more so to my fellow assistant-librarians, for whom it should be a mandatory reading)!
Read my full comment on: http://clodjee.blogspot.ca/2010/02/un...
Written (under a pen name) by a real-life librarian who works in an undisclosed library in the Pacific Northwest of the U.S.A., Unshelved is a rather funny comic strip. The art is a little crude and it's probably of a greater interest to me because I work in a library (although it made me laugh even before I started working there). Also, I admit that this particular volume feels a little less funny to me, maybe because the novelty of a witty librarian in riduculous situations is wearing off and previous volumes had more continuity in the story of each strip as they were more or less following a general theme. I don't see that in Reader's Advisory as you have some stories or themes that go on only for two or three strips. However, after seven volumes it still makes me laugh, so I recommend it without hesitation (even more so to my fellow assistant-librarians, for whom it should be a mandatory reading)!
Read my full comment on: http://clodjee.blogspot.ca/2010/02/un...
October 19, 2015
I snagged this while visiting a librarian friend of mine and am glad of it. It's a comic collection of Sunday-style black and white strips punch-lining the (mis)adventures of working in a public library. My librarian friend assures me it's pretty accurate (Gene Ambaum is himself a working librarian, after all) and having been a patron of libraries my whole life, I believe it. There's a lot of truth here for folks in any support/service position, and it's clever; I found myself smiling and nodding many times (and I delight in Dewey's bluntness).
This isn't the first of the Unshelved collections, so there isn't really any character explanation. You can pick up most of who's who as they keep appearing, but be warned if it bothers you not to clearly know names and relationships.
The back quarter or so of this is "Book Clubs," color illustrations advertising actual books. While I was delighted to recognize as many of the books as I did, I wasn't as much a fan of these as I was the strips themselves. They blurred together after the first few; for me, the comics section was much better.
This isn't the first of the Unshelved collections, so there isn't really any character explanation. You can pick up most of who's who as they keep appearing, but be warned if it bothers you not to clearly know names and relationships.
The back quarter or so of this is "Book Clubs," color illustrations advertising actual books. While I was delighted to recognize as many of the books as I did, I wasn't as much a fan of these as I was the strips themselves. They blurred together after the first few; for me, the comics section was much better.
April 28, 2014
reader's advisory
This is the 7th collection of web comics by Bill Barnes and Gene Ambaum. All the adventure and humor takes place in a public library. Main character, Dewey, is a snarky teen librarian who also works the reference desk. Join him and his coworkers as they attempt to help the public with their library issues and sometimes more personal issues. You do not have to have read any of the earlier book collections for the stories to make sense. Some reviewers think this collection has the best art and writing in the series. Join Dewey and the library staff to discover a different side of a familiar place.
This is the 7th collection of web comics by Bill Barnes and Gene Ambaum. All the adventure and humor takes place in a public library. Main character, Dewey, is a snarky teen librarian who also works the reference desk. Join him and his coworkers as they attempt to help the public with their library issues and sometimes more personal issues. You do not have to have read any of the earlier book collections for the stories to make sense. Some reviewers think this collection has the best art and writing in the series. Join Dewey and the library staff to discover a different side of a familiar place.
October 3, 2011
I recognized a lot more of these strips, as they're from around the time I subscribed to the daily strip. I think my favorite part of this were the Library Tips that paid a little homage to Kenny Rogers' "The Gambler!" :-)
I unfortunately finished this 3 days too late--I did try to finish in September! So, I won't be able to count this as part of the Sep. Book Challenge.
I unfortunately finished this 3 days too late--I did try to finish in September! So, I won't be able to count this as part of the Sep. Book Challenge.
January 31, 2014
I really wanted to like this, but perhaps I need to start at the beginning of the series, which my library doesn't have. It was cute, but there wasn't much continuity between strips. Not sure if that's intentional or if, as a compilation, some strips were cut. It's just not quite my style, although I did enjoy the artwork.
July 24, 2009
You don't have to be a librarian to appreciate this humor but you do have to like books. The latest adventures of Dewey and the Mallville Public library are hilarious. It's almost enough to make me want back in.
April 10, 2016
Almost anything can happen in a public library, but even more things happen in the Mallville Public Library, thanks (in part) to young adult librarian Dewey, who likes to do his job with a certain twist. On the other hand, it's branch manager Mel who decides to circulate ukuleles...
August 8, 2009
technically I've read all of the comics online, but this is the only one I have a hard copy of. One of my favorite web comics.
January 16, 2010
More of this wonderful comic strip which shows library work mostly like it is!
September 17, 2014
First read this in 2010...re-reading in 2014 to read them all in order.
June 17, 2010
The quantum uncertainty principle says that, until I look it up, the book is both there and not there. This phenomenon is known as "Schroedinger's Catalog."
July 3, 2010
If you work in a library you need to read this strip on a daily basis!
April 29, 2010
Wonderful funniness.
November 21, 2010
A very funny collection of library oriented humor that anybody can enjoy.
September 22, 2011
Almost thou persuadest me to become a librarian...
December 22, 2011
Collection #7 of the web comic Unshelved. Wild and crazy library humor from 2008.
March 28, 2012
Sometimes it is fun to reread a comic strip. I have read these as emails a couple of years ago, but still enjoyed rereading the whole year with the Book Reviews included!
Displaying 1 - 29 of 38 reviews