3 Best Ways to Find a Good Book

Have you ever had a friend suggest a book to you, only to discover within the first few chapters, that you can't quite share her enthusiasm?

How about the latest bestseller you picked up that everyone was raving about? Did you put it down, wondering what all the fuss was about?

Avid readers are always looking for the next great read. More importantly, though, avid readers know their personal tastes. Book reviews, bestsellers lists, and bookstore displays offer new reading suggestions, but these suggestions are often too general. How can a book lover find good book recommendations that are more personalized to their reading preferences?

The 3 Best Ways to Find a Good Book go beyond word of mouth and general book searches--the best ways to find a good book involve sharing your preferences with other book lovers and book professionals who can offer more personalized book recommendations.

Befriend Your Librarian

If you haven't seen the inside of a library since your school days, it's time to go back. Not only do public libraries offer free materials (books, newspapers, magazines, databases, DVD, etc.), but they also offer a valuable source to readers: librarians. Librarians research, preview, purchase, and catalogue thousands of books each year. Each time you return a book to the library, start a conversation with your librarian about what you liked and disliked about the book. Be specific. A librarian will quickly get a sense of what genre, tone, character-types you like in a book and will most likely have more recommendations each time you return.

(If you're lucky enough to have an independent bookseller in your area, befriend this person, too. Unfortunately, the commotion of customers speeding through the big-name book retailers doesn't provide an environment for personal recommendations from the staff beyond the general "Recommended by the Staff" cards put out on the shelves.)

Join a Book Club

Friends love to recommend books to one another, but sometimes those recommendations are based on what your friend loves in a book, not you. Just because we love our friends and family, doesn't mean we have to love the same books. Meeting with a group of readers, talking specifically about the merits of a book, our likes and dislikes, our expectations, our favorite genres, leads to the forming of a group of people who understand exactly what each other loves in a book. Even if a group member comes across a book he didn't particularly care for, if it meets your criteria, he is bound to recommend it to you.

Consult a Book Expert Online

Book recommendation search engines like WhatShouldIReadNext.com and WhichBook.net offer tons of book suggestions from databases of countless books. But still...readers are inputting general information and receiving an automated response.

However, don't think the Internet can't help you find a good book suited specifically to your preferences.

At the "Like for Like" book recommendations page at LoveReading.co.uk, registered users (registration is free) can enter the last name of their favorite author and receive recommendations of other books in the same genre or with a similar style. Unlike other databases based on statistics of what other books readers have purchased, this search engine is based on the recommendations of a real person. Sarah Broadhurst, a seasoned professional in the book trade, personally reviewed over 500 best known authors, then provided at least two recommendations of similar authors. Not quite as personal, but still a recommendation from a book professional.

Laura Miller, senior writer at Salon.com, discussed the challenges of recommending good books and profiled book experts who offer their book matchmaking services to readers online: E-mail The Paris Review editor Lorin Stein at advice@theparisreview.org and your question just may be included in her book recommendation blog Ask The Paris Review. The Biblioracle (aka, John Warner of The Morning News) asks readers for a list of the five last books they read, then suggests a sixth.

Passionate readers are always ready to find a good book: a book that changes them, stays with them for a lifetime, makes them eager for more, ready to "fall in love" with a new book. But much like a romantic relationship, those types of books may feel elusive, like a one-in-a-million experience. And yet, if you follow these more personal approaches, you may just find yourself falling in love with a new book every time.

Resources:

Miller, Laura. "The Fine Art of Recommending Books." http://www.salon.com/books/laura_miller/index.html?story=/books/laura_miller/2010/07/21/recommendations