Help! I Need A Novel! August 11, 2008
Posted by bookgoddess in Authors, Books, Fiction, Literature, readers, Reading, West Palm Beach Public Library.Tags: American Booksellers Association, American Library Association, book-related websites, National Public Radio, New York Times, notable books, novels, NPR, Reading lists, Reading Robot, What Do I Read Next, What Should I Read Next
3 comments
I recently got a question from a patron who wanted to know the best websites for selecting fiction. This is an excellent question, and one problem is that it will have different answers for different types of readers. The other problem is that there are endless book-related websites, and we are only going to scratch the surface here.
First of all, I want to refer you to our Library website, where we have a whole set of pages (and many more links) devoted to helping you find something great to read: http://librarytogo.org/books_l2go.htm.
Being a librarian makes you very aware of how many books there are out there, and it makes me want to pick out the very best. So, here are some really good sources of “best” lists:
American Library Association Notable Books: http://www.ala.org/ala/rusa/protools/notablebooks/thelists/2008list/notablebooks.cfm
New York Times Notable Books: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/02/books/review/notable-books-2007.html
American Booksellers Association: http://www.indiebound.org/indie-next-list
Some readers like to find books of a specific genre, setting, or subject matter. Websites which are very helpful for this include:
What Do I Read Next? – Search fiction by subject, settings, time period, major character: http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/WDIRN?locID=41100_wpbpl
What Should I Read Next? – Provide a title and find out what others who read that book have read (UK emphasis, so nice for Anglophiles): http://whatshouldireadnext.com/search
Reading Robot – Focuses on genre fiction; nice because you can choose (or exclude) certain writing styles or types of characters: http://www.tnrdlib.bc.ca/rr.html
And one last, not to be missed source: the National Public Radio Books page, which always makes me want to drop everything and start reading one of the wonderful featured titles: http://www.npr.org/templates/topics/topic.php?topicId=1032
Wow! I haven’t even said anything about the book-related social networking sites like GoodReads, LibraryThing and Shelfari. I think I’m going to have to leave them for another post.
Do you have any favorite book-related websites? Please share!
Happy Reading!
The Book Goddess
The Book Goddess 