Social media (goodreads/tiktok/reddit)? Colleagues? Friends? Browsing the library/bookstore? Asking for recommendations from staff at libraries/bookstores?

BONUS: if you can remember, how did you find books you really enjoyed?

I realized a lot of my favorite book recs came from reddit. I was a subscriber of r/books and picked up some really good books there. Piranesi by Susanna Clarke is an example.

  • Ben
    2•1 year ago

    I’m terrible at choosing books. In the old days, everyone knew The Hobbit, and then LOTR were great. I was told by a friend to read ‘Duncton Wood’ and I bought a series of ‘Classics’ which lasted me a few years between books.

    I search for lists, recent awards and stuff like that - but they can be so problematic. I just read through “An Absolutely Remarkable Thing” by Hank Green and cannot imagine why most ratings aren’t between one to 3 stars. The remarkable part of the story is omitted, and we’re subjected to a social diatribe probably made more popular by the current focus on gender fluidity.

    I dive into Annies Archive and grab a few, polish them and send them to my Kindle… at least that keeps the investment down (as there aren’t any libraries here…).

    One must simply parse information going beyond reviews.

    Right now I’m pushing my way into ‘The Oracle Year’ and already there are 2 things that happened there which just make no sense… but I’ll give it a go.

    Something which I will now persist with is multi-tasking… so when I find a book I like, I’ll put it on the SLOW burner - with 4 books on the reading list (one for my son to read when he gets back from school - he’s reading Bad Dad now).

    So yes, it’d be good to have a few booklists here, with options to add/vote on them.

    Also, don’t forget Bookwyrm. I’m going to get around to adding my existing and past reads there too in the hope that some wonderful AI will be good enough to find me some really good ones I would miss.