book advertising...is it just word of mouth?

I was thinking the other day about all of the advertisements we see for cars, clothes, food and electronical devices. Ads in magazine, newspapers, tv (of course) and even the little pop up windows if one does not have have pop up blocker when cruisin' the internet. And even within these advertisements for one product there also seems to be another product hidden within them. For example, the new chrysler commercial that has Eminem. It is not only trying to sell the car, but it includes his song as well, maybe in hopes that people will also buy his song. And then there are movies and tv shows with their product placement. Being an avid dawson's creek fan, I noticed that Joey always drinks a coke product. I don't drink soda so I wasn't tempted to go out and buy a case when I saw her drinking it on tv, but others may have been. Even commercials for apple do a wonderful job a putting in additional items that a person could buy besides the product they are promoting. But what about BOOKS! Where are the advertisements for books. I don't see a lovely commercial of a person sitting on a park bench reading Fablehaven by Brandon Mull and then having someone sit down next to them and gloat about how excellent it is and should go buy a copy, or maybe just borrow theirs. So it makes me wonder how do people learn about the good books that are out there. I know I do amazon searches and they have that little bar that recommends similar books. I also cruise the shelves at the local library constantly since I work there as well and I get to see the new books even before they go on the shelf. I also work in a school library so I get publisher magazines that show the new releases, but if I didn't work at a library how would I know what was new, besides looking at the NY's bestseller's list which doesn't list new and wonderful books in juvinille literature, such as Fablehaven by Brandon Mull. So maybe the best adverstisement for books is just word of mouth. For example, i would highly recommended Fablehaven by Brandon Mull. I know in the schools when we have faculty meetings I show new books in our library and the funny thing is no one still takes them. When I read them to the ECE classes, in which the teachers come, the teachers are always like, "WOW that was a good book!" And I'm like when I told you about during the faculty meeting did you not believe me! It's very interesting. And look at how many products I just mentioned. It doesn't take much.

So I wonder if books really do need advertising or will the book industry be able to survive on word of mouth only?