how do you find new books to read?

Cafe Society
1

Do you read the plot summary on the back of the book/book flaps?

Do you rely on the advice of friends?

Do you rely on book reviews?

Do you buy mostly authors with whom you’re familiar?

Most of the junk I read is based upon dumb things, like the cover art or Amazon’s recommendations. Sometimes, they are books with which I have been familiar for longtime, not because I’ve ever read them, but because I’ve heard about them, and wanted to purchase them, so I do. Like, say, Foundation by Asimov.

I’ve noted this before, but I do NOT like reading the plot summaries because they give away too much.

For example, I purchased this book, Doctors Wear Scarlet, by Simon Raven. All I knew about it was that it was supposedly a well-written book and highly regarded by “experts.”

all I knew was that it was about vampirism, but I’m already about half way through, and you’d never have known anything about vampirism through to this point, so why the FUCK does the back cover summarize the book through what must be 3/4 of the way through the fucking book?!?!

Suffice it to say, I wish I hadn’t read the back cover, since it gave away even more than I had known about the story. I should go back to my practice of taping stickies to the backs.

BTW, this book is well-written, and funny, so far, and there are interesting observations one can make based upon the story, but I’ll save that for another thread.

2

It’s been a while since I bought a book for reading pleasure. I have bought some music books, but the ones I buy “just to read” have begun to overflow the cases we keep them in.

That’s why I have grown fond of our branch library and have restricted my pleasure reading to check-out books. The three week time frame allows me to check out several at once so that’s how I have been doing my reading for the past year or better.

The library has a “new books” section that I always check first, and it usually provides at least one book for that visit. Then I just go through the sections I have an interest in and pick one (or more) that I haven’t read yet.

My wife will still buy fiction for me to read aloud to us, but I leave that all up to her. I don’t know her criteria, but last time she went book shopping she asked if I had any preferences. I suggested John Grisham and she got his latest (I think) but we have yet to read it. Those reading aloud sessions are sort of hit-or-miss once we get into them, with some taking a month or better to finish a book.

Anyway, that’s the way I do it these days.

3

I read a wide variety of fiction by different authors. I read book reviews in magazines to get ideas. Believe it or not, I’ve found many good books by reading the reviews in “People”. I also belong to a book group and get ideas from the people in my group.
Since I’m a fifth grade teacher, I make a point to read the Newbery Medal winner each year, too.

4

I read the back of books a lot and sometimes even the cover will provide insight. I take suggestions from friends. I read other stuff by authors I enjoy. I sometimes use that Amazon “If you like X, try Y” feature. I read Salon’s book reviews and sometimes something catches my eye. And sometimes I go on what I’ve heard over the years, through various places. And, finally, sometimes a book just looks interesting.

5

With fiction, I rely on critical acclaim to lead me to new books.

Since I mainly read non-fiction, I rely heavily on Amazon’s recommendation feature.

It’s becomming difficult to find books I haven’t read.

6

I read a fair amount of non-fiction, so a lot of times I end up following a trail from one book to another (to another) – I’ll check out something on the same subject mentioned in a bibliography or .

7
  • footnote.

(oops. fix one mistake, make another.)

8

I’m impressed! With 40,000+ new books being published in the U.S. alone every year, plus re-issues of old classics, and everything out-of-print available in the used bookshops, you must have LOADS of reading time on your hands.

My problem is going into bookshops and NOT spending all my pocket-money. And the growing piles of not-yet-read books around the house.

Last week I walked into a local used shop and dropped nine bucks on a pictorial guide to the Musee d’Orsay in Paris, and another ten on a hardcover copy of Jay Rpbert Nash’s 1982 Zanies: The World’s Great Eccentrics (ostensibly for the edification of my 13 year old daughter).

Today I stopped in one of the neighborhood independent booksellers to get a brithday gift for one of my 8 year old’s friends (copies of Hugh Lofting’s The Voyages of Dr. Doolitle and William Pene du Bois’ The Twenty-One Balloons). While waiting to pay a grabbed copies of a new Four Walls Eight Windows reprint of Wibberly’s The Mouse that Roared – and was tempted by their reprint of The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit – and the New York Review of Books’ reprint of Joyce Cary’s The Horse’s Mouth, two novels I’ve wanted to read for years.

Now all I have to do is finish Behan’s Borstal Boy, and – wait, what about that copy of Wu Ch’eng En’s ancient classic Monkey? I was gonna read THAT next! And this copy of Eugene Genovese’s historical work Roll, Jordan, Roll, the analysis of Negro slavery? And The King in the Golden Mask, the collection of Marcel Schwob’s decadent tales? And the freebie my wife got me, Guthrie Ramsey’s Race Music, the history of bebop, soul music, and hip-hop…and I still haven’t finished the reissue of Commander Edward Ellsberg’s On the Bottom, the story of the salvage of the U.S. Navy submarine S-51 in 1925…

9

Pod’s top 5 ways to find new books:

  1. Find new (or at least, new to me) books by authors I have enjoyed in the past.

  2. Recommendations from friends (including my best friend, Mr. Fries). In particular, there’s one bud of mine who has never steered me wrong. If he recommends a book highly, I drop everything and run to find it.

  3. Grabbing books with a funky cover. (I know, I know, you’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but I just can’t resist a book with a good tacky 70’s sci-fi cover art.)

  4. Reviews. Sometimes I hear a review on the radio or something that sounds good.

  5. Suggestions from Amazon. (Okay, truth be told, this has actually worked exactly twice, but those two books turned me on to my two favorite contemporary authors.)

The number one way I’ve gotten burned is buying books recommended by authors I like. I don’t know how they write so well, because almost inevitably, their taste in literature is for crap!

10

Sounds like a theme is developing as far as method here.

Books by favorite authors are a gimme. That’s my most common bookly indulgence since I got poor and had to ration my book buying.

Second is books by authors my favorite authors like. I’ve found most authors have a list of their faves on their websites, and it’s led me to some great discoveries.

Third is if I hear an interview with the author, usually on NPR, and he or she sounds like the ability to tell a good story exists within them.

Last is probably my favorite: Walk around the bookstore and just pick up books at random. Open the to middle and read a page or two. If it grabs, buy the book. If not, move on to the next.

Of course, you can spend about six hours doing this, but I can’t think of many more enjoyable ways of spending six hours.

11

I don’t get a lot of reading in, so I don’t have Lissa’s problem. I mainly work my way through classics, or books by well-regarded authors that I find in the bargain bin. I recently read books by Joseph Heller, Saul Bellow, and am working on One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I also pick up things that look interesting, based on the cover synopsis, while pawing through the bargain bins.

I read Confederacy of Dunces and got into Jeannette Winterson based on friends’ recommendations.

I picked up Infinite Jest at Powell’s based on the employee recommendations on the shelves in the store.

I’m working my way through Kurt Vonnegut’s novels because I like his stuff, and did the same with Richard Brautigan.

12

Funny - if you are familiar with my posts here, you know that lately I’ve been devouring Douglas Preston/Lincoln Child’s books. Their books are kind of formulaic, but with just enough variety and a great dose of suspense to make the books a lot of fun, so, like, I don’t even know what their latest book, Still Life With Crows, is about, but I don’t have to - I will purchase it the day it comes out in Mass Market Paperback because I know I will eat it up.

Another author who always did it for me was Roger Zelazny.

I don’t read enough to have the same depth of mind (as in reading lots of “important” works like War and Peace or 100 Years of Solitude) as many readers do, also since I tend to read light junky fluff stuff. At the same time, I really enjoy reading junk that’s good - it’s time well-spent since it’s entertaining.

I wish I enjoyed those deep, heavy books more, but I just find so many of them tedious and overrated and plain boring. Often dated, too. Like Catcher in the Rye or some of Gide’s writings.

Anyway, I also find Amazon’s recommendations not so great, but what Amazon IS good for is ratings. If a book is rated 4.5-5 stars by a number of people, then it is probably a safe bet if you like that category of book.

13

How do I find my books? Well much like the people here have already said.

I love going to a bookstore and wandering around looking at the books. Usually I sick to sections I prefer (mostly SciFi/Fantasy lately but sometimes others) and grab whatever catches my eye to take a peek at the back cover/dust jacket.

Same with the library. I go to the paperback section and I go through every rack of the genres I like (this time I usually also visit the horror/crime/true fiction stuff) and grab a few books that seem like they’d be good. If I read that and like it I will go searching for the rest of the authors books.

Not often but ocassionally I will find a book through a review. Usually overheard on the radio or TV (Space sometimes promotes books. That’s how I found the author Robert J Sawyer and the Radio helped me find The Red Tent which I would’ve never heard of otherwise.) Some libraries have ‘recommended reading’ tables which I like to scan and most bookstores have them as well or tags on books showing that the employees like these books.

If I buy/read a collection of short stories and find I really like a certain author I’ll go looking for their books that way.

And of course I’ll go on reccomendations from friends. Not many of my friends read but the ones who do can usually help me find some books I like. It doesn’t always work though, I know I got roomie hooked on Laurell K Hamilton and he made me read the first Robert Jordan… but I couldn’t get into it like he did. Sometimes I’ll even get some good books from my Grandma! Usually our tastes don’t mesh but she’s shown me a few local authors that write about the good ole days which are really good to read for local interest.

14

I generally walk around bookstores and look at the “New in Hardcover” “New in Paperbook” “Our Staff Recommends” and “New Voices in Fiction” sections. I also look up books I like on amazon.com and then click the “people that purchased this book also purchased X” links.

Then, I go to my library online card catalog and request the books that sounded interesting. :slight_smile:

15

Unfortunately, it seems that about 90% of the new stuff being published is Goth/Punk Elves and the latest Robert Jordan Wheel of Time wannabe. Yeah, yeah, Sturgeon’s Law and all that, but I’m really TIRED of angst-ridden vampires and other fads.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s some really great new stuff out, but I’m starting to think that Sturgeon was an optimist.

16

If it’s Stephen King, Stuart Woods, John Grisham, Olivia Goldsmith or Greg Iles, I’ll buy it. The thing is, my love for Greg Iles and Olivia Goldsmith both developed in a way I haven’t seen mentioned yet in this thread: secondhand stores. See, hubby works out of town a couple of days each week; if he’s out of something to read, he’ll go to the local thrift store and look through their selection of books, and pick one. Paperbacks usually go for 25 to 40 cents, hardbacks are a buck to a buck and a half. He figures it’s low risk. He picked up Greg Iles’ The Quiet Game this way, and we both loved it, and have liked some of his other books. He picked up Olivia Goldsmith’s The Bestseller this way, found it “too much of a woman’t book”, and gave it to me to see if I’d like it; I did, and have enjoyed a couple of her other books so far, as well.

Thrift stores are great for finding books, because the gamble is so small.

17

Occasionally I will search for a book that has been recommended by written reviews and/or by friends. But mostly this is the way I select books…

**I go to the library. I prowl the sections of new arrivals and other sections that hold books that spark my current interest.

**In a matter of seconds I can qualify a book by…

(a) Looking over the cover making sure I haven’t read it before, and reading the subtitle for clues of content.
(b) opening the book and seeing if the chapter headings and charts and photos are in my area of interest.
© and lastly I read the fly or the back cover to make sure that the author is not someone I’ve previously found boring, or tedious, or a commie, or a woman. (he he, Just kidding about the woman)

**Usually I can find about two dozen books that are worth checking out, so I do.

**At home that night I have a small private party. Beer, popcorn and a skip through all the library books to qualify them futher and select the ones I plan to read first.

The advantage of the thirty book a month method is that you will always have something on hand to read to fit your mood of the moment. The lending peorid of the library system I patronise is three weeks, with an option to renew with books that are not high demand. I adapt to this frame work by skip reading the books that are the least interesting and selectively reading the technical and specilized stuff and if I haven’t finished reading the books I like, I simply renew them.

But Damnit-to-hell I’m human. I lose books, I loan books to my friends, I forget to renew books on time. I pay steep fines.

Yeah, maybe as much as sixty bucks a year - the price of a concert and dinner, or a pair of New Balance tennis shoes. Yeah, on average I figure that I pay about $ 0.17 per hour for the pleasure I get from reading books. Life is good.

18

Suggestions from Amazon have been great. I was ordering a Kathe Koja book and they recommended A.M. Homes’s The End of Alice, which I loved. I’ve since bought and read Music for Torching and The Safety of Objects.

Friends recommendations are more hit or miss. I’ve really been meaning to get Katherine Dunn’s Geek Love, which several college classmates recommended after reading my own fiction in a writing class, but I’ve never gotten around to it.

19

A good way to get recommendations from like-minded readers is to seach for fan sites for one of your favorite authors. I discovered the historical fiction of Dorothy Dunnet via recommendations on an SF fan site.

Amazon has become my primary book/DVD search/browse tool, though the recommendation features such as “people who purchased this also purchased …” needs further refinement. Maybe they should let you enter the names of 3 or 4 authors and then report the top-10 “also purchased” authors. Maybe someday they’ll have an A.I. program that let’s me describe what I want and finds it for me!

The last place on earth I’d look for a good book is a “Top-10 Bestseller” list.

20

When I find an author I like, I try to find out what authors inspired his work, or influenced his writing style.

Usually, if you like the author, you’ll like his Muse.