Advice for Finding Your Next Read

Some of the most popular types of threads posted here on r/books are those asking people for recommendations for new books or for strategies for how to find new books. The former are usually deleted by the mods, and their creators are referred to r/booksuggestions or similar. However, the latter type of thread is still prevalent, with something in that vein popping up around once a day it seems.

What this suggests to me is that many people have not developed methods for cultivating their own reading lists, or struggle with their current methods. I think of myself as a somewhat picky reader with particular tastes. I certainly cannot just walk into a bookstore, pick up something from the New Releases or Best Sellers shelves and feel that I am likely to enjoy it. Maybe I would, maybe I would not, but my experience has shown me that my tastes are too narrow for success to be probable.

Nevertheless, I am never short of books that are on my TBR list or in my to-read stack. The reason for this is that I know what sources of ideas for new books will be bountiful for me, and also how to use them in ways that will provide me with good works to consider. By keeping an eye out to those sources as part of a regular practice, my TBR pile is never empty.

What I hope to achieve with this post is share what sources I use and the why/how behind them. I will also share some sources that I don’t use, and also my thought process about why I don’t consider them. Of course, you might have already found that some of the sources I use don’t work for you, and some of the ones I don’t have been fruitful in your case. I believe my guidance is applicable regardless of taste, so this should apply whether you like avant garde literary fiction, crime thrillers, YA fantasy, horror, whatever. But my overall goal is to help people develop reliable mechanisms for finding enjoyable new books and avoid stinkers along the way.

First I will discuss the main sources that I use and review to get ideas for what I might like to consider adding to my TBR pile. Most of these are “online” in some sense, but I think they are distinct in terms of how and why I use them. The sources I use are:

* **Friends whose tastes I know and who know mine** \- Now, I don’t have a lot of friends that do much reading, but I do have a few. And we do like to talk about the books we’re reading. Our tastes are not identical, but they do overlap. The more we talk about books, the more we are able to understand which books we like that might appeal to each other, and which might may be more suited to one’s unique taste. Through this kind of conversation, I get ideas of books that my friends have enjoyed that I think I may also enjoy.
* **People/personalities who I “follow” in some sense (social media, podcasts, blogs, etc), who I have seen have similar tastes to me** \- If you are like me, you spend a lot of time online, probably on other social media and websites. Over time, I come to find that there are certain people with whom I have no actual personal relationship, but whose opinions about all sorts of different stuff are interesting or agreeable to me. Some of those folks also like to read, and they may talk about what they’re reading occasionally. Even if they’re not primarily working in the “books” world, I place some weight in their opinions on other things, so I look into whatever they say they’re reading as well.
* **Staff picks at bookstores I like** \- What makes a bookstore “good” is that the books it stocks are the ones you wanted it to have, whether you knew which ones they were or not. It is the staff that curate the general selection. So even if I don’t have a personal relationship with anyone on staff, I have reason to believe they have smart thoughts on books worth considering. The staff picks section/shelf is where those opinions are most concentrated. Most bookstores these days will have cards with blurbs in a staffperson’s own words about why they are recommending the book, and these can be the source of some great finds. (I do not personally use the library that much, but this just as well applies to your local library.)
* **Reviews or other writing in literature/book related publications** \- Which publications, sites, and blogs you might consider following would vary based on your broad tastes. E.g. you might consider reading science-fiction related sites if that’s the kind of book you like to read. But finding those publications that have opinions that resonate with you will be a great stream of thoughts on new and historically overlooked books that could be interesting to read.
* **Other books from authors whose books I’ve already enjoyed** \- This one might a bit obvious, but if you liked one book from an author, chances are you will like others. Of course most authors’ bibliographies are not consistently high quality. But the odds of finding an enjoyable read are much higher when you know you have already appreciated something else with with that author’s touch.
* **Books from smaller publishers whose books I’ve previously enjoyed** \- This is similar to the last item. Small presses tend to have a highly curatorial approach in what they publish. If they published something you like, then they are probably publishing other work based on their principles that you are likely to enjoy. Checking their catalog can sometimes be fruitful.
* **Book awards** \- With all the caveats that should always be considered about the purity/corruption of any award, these can still be a good way to find something new. While many of the books you might have heard of from one of the other sources, it doesn’t hurt to take look and see if any award winners and nominees sound interesting. Additionally, you can always go back and look at past iterations of the award. If nothing else, they have certainly impressed a panel of people who make it their job to think about quality books. There are all sorts of awards that have different genre specialties and/or different qualifications which they consider, so it should definitely be possible to find awards that share your concerns for what you want in a book.

Now we get to what sources of opinion or suggestion are out there that I don’t consider. Maybe one or all of these might work for you, but I will explain why I do not really pay these sources any mind. They are:

* **Books that trending on “booktok,” “booktube,” “bookstagram,” etc.** \- I will state up front that this does not mean I never get an idea of a book to read from one of these platforms. What I am specifically talking about is the phenomenon where over the course of a couple months, it seems like all the creators start talking about the same half dozen books for some reason. Why this happens I have never really bothered to investigate. But just like any other trend, I don’t really pay it much mind or let it direct my reading. Much the same way I don’t worry too much about what show or hit new song everyone is talking about online, I don’t worry about what book is the new hotness. These trends occur for many different reasons, but really none of those reasons are aligned with signifiers of qualities that matter to me.
* **Best sellers lists** \- Again, similar to other media, this is not a way I have ever really found new things. I don’t get new music from the Billboard charts. I don’t find new movies from what is on top at the box office. So with books, I don’t pay much mind to what books are selling best at any point. Of course that doesn’t mean I’ll never read a best seller, but the fact that a book has sold a lot does not make it inherently interesting.
* **”Customers also purchased” recommendations on online retailers** \- Who are these customers? Why did they purchase the book I am purchasing in the first place? I know nothing about these people and their motivations and their opinions, so what use is the fact that they purchased Book B along with Book A to me? People who buy cream cheese also buy bagels. Well I’m making cheesecake so I don’t really have any use for the bagels, thanks.
* **Product reviews from the internet, including Goodreads** \- This is probably a big one where I differ. But like the last item, unless there are specific people on these sites for whom I have some concept of their general character and disposition in my mind, these sorts of reviews are meaningless to me. I don’t know BookGuy1978. We have no relationship. I don’t know his aesthetic values in general or what he really enjoys. So he rated a book 5 stars? That rating is effectively no different than random number generator assigning the book 5 stars instead of 2. Since I have no idea who 99.999% of the people on Goodreads, Amazon reviews, etc. are, I don’t know why I would pay their opinions any mind. They might have perfectly good and thoughtful assessments of books, but I don’t see the value in taking guidance from strangers.

So as I stated, I would not say this is the only practice to have if you want to find good books. If you’re reading along to booktok trends and having a great time, that is awesome. Reading should be enjoyable and it’s great you’re enjoying it.

But if you are struggling and finding that most of what you’re picking up is unenjoyable, then I recommend developing new sources of ideas to improve your reading. My hope is that the methods above might be useful to you. I will say I am someone who reads about 40 books per year on average, so I go through quite a few, and think about books pretty often. However, I don’t think I expend that much effort on doing all of this. Just reading a bit of a review here and there waiting for a bus, scrolling twitter, stopping in a bookstore every so often. I’m not really carving out a lot of time to look up new books, but knowing where to look when I need it or have the time is very beneficial to my reading.

I know it’s a long post, but we’re all readers, right? Thanks for reading. Best of luck.

by Handyandy58