With so many books being published every day, how do you find a book you want to read?
I usually go through recommendations on Goodreads, and I keep track of what books my favourite authors are publishing.
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In 2022, my recommendations came mostly from:
- Blogs that are not dedicated to books – I’ve left most blogs & podcasts that only talk about books because they tend to make my
- My local library & my local bookshop are both absolutely amazing and have wonderful suggestions for books I would never have found in any other way.
- When I see a clearly leftist or anarchist-leaning library, I enter and, uh… support them financially.
- Friends, of course!
Sometimes a friend shelves a book on GoodReads or Bookwyrm (the fediverse book tool/communities) which catches my eye. There’s a SF/F bookclub podcast I listen to, and I learn about new authors and books that way (The Sword and Laser http://swordandlaser.com/). Then, I also get leads from talking about books with friends or co-workers. And, listening to other podcasts and talk radio programs, I get leads on books with different topics. For example, the NPR show Science Friday reviews books and interviews authors from time to time (and they also have a book club: https://www.sciencefriday.com/scifri-book-club/ ). The BBC Radio show The Food Programme does the same, and also does seasonal episodes on new cookboods/food books that are coming out ( https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qnx3 ). And also, several different book subreddits.
Recommendations from friends and people on Mastodon, books from authors I already know or recommended by them, and in my case, for SF/Fantasy stuff, mostly, there’s the Big Idea posts on Scalzi’s blog. The authors post an article about their books, and that’s usually enough to tell me if I’m likely to enjoy it.
I might have the opposite problem lol. Too much I want to read and too little time. I always wanna read them all.
To narrow it down, I search in my library/libby app and then pick the one currently available.
I’ll second the Libby app but more directly…
I look at the new books available then filter by the genre I’d like to read. Many duds but I’ve also run across many duds being recommended online (like reddit). Feels a bit like eating out pre-internet where you’d try a restaurant and hope for the best.
