My work husband G once asked me how I find so many different and good book recommendations. He is an avid reader, but prefers non-fiction and does not belong to any book clubs or the like. He joined Goodreads because I told him about it and now I am his only friend, which means that he sees ALL of my ratings and comments about them at work. He is not really a social media person, but loves being able to keep track of his books, which I find very dear. I have recommended a few fiction books to him which he has really loved (The Nightingale, The House in The Cerulean Sea, A Tree Grows In Brooklyn) even though his genre is usually non-fiction.
To answer his question, I told him that I have a multitiered process.
First of all, my number one method for getting good book recommendations is from other bloggers, and I keep them in a list and make a few notes. I also do rate them in Goodreads once I am done; the notes I keep in this list are very basic. Here are a few examples.
NGS/Lisa: Kill Show (put on hold 12/01, hard copy only, no audio)
Stephany: Symphony of Secrets by Brendan Slocumb (put on hold 10/24)
---------------- READ ------------------------
Emily: An Evil Heart (on hold 10/06) READ, thought it was good.
Elisabeth/Nicole: I Feel Bad About My Neck (borrowed 6/28) READ, really liked it. Great read about getting older as a woman. Humorous.
Jenny: Let Your Mind Run: A Memoir of Thinking My Way to Victory (Deena Kastor) (put on hold 9/28) READ, thought it was good. Definitely different from the other two running lady books I read this year. [Side note, in case you are wondering, they were Good For A Girl and The Longest Race]
The other thing I do is I poach my friends' feeds on Goodreads for five star reviews. This is actually not one I do very often, as I am not really a social media scroller; I generally get on, add my updates and get off without really looking through the feed. However, sometimes I will see a five star and I will go to Libby and put that on hold. For these ones, I don't really make a list or notes.
I also peruse the Goodreads annual choice awards. Each year a winning book is chosen from each genre. However, there are also about 10 nominees for each category and I often will add books from the top ten to my holds list. For example, here were some of the top nominees (and the winner, Weyward) for this year's historical fiction category (one of my favorite genres).
However, I will also
peruse the prior years nominee lists if I am looking to fill my holds bin. Sometimes there are books on the old lists that I have still never read. The good thing about this method for me is that I can tell by a glance on Goodreads if I have read it or not, because more likely than not, I will not always remember!
I also use Libby in two ways: (a) if I need a book now, like I am desperate, I will check the "available now" filter and just see what is out there and in this case I am not too picky. If I see a thriller from an author I know (or think) is not total crap, I will borrow it. I also have some in the pocket, like I still have not read all of the Louise Penny books, so I am saving some of those for a rainy day! (b) I may also filter by "popular now" although more and more I have read a lot of the first ones that come up, but I will still scroll down and then either put them on hold or borrow them if they look interesting. In this case, I will admit, I sometimes DO judge a book by its cover. Sorry!
Lastly, and not least, I get recommendations from IRL friends! These are more few and far between but they are still there. My friend K's Mom was reading Lessons In Chemistry the last time we were together and I was so excited to hear what she thought about it after she was done (and she loved it! and apparently there is now a TV show too, which is supposed to be pretty good).
Also, you may wonder how I keep track of what I want to read. I used to mark them as "want to read" on Goodreads but I found that once I had the "wish list" function on OverDrive, which then transferred over to Libby, it is just easier to either put them on hold right away, borrow them right away, or put them on my wish list on OverDrive/Libby right away rather than trying to manage two lists.
How do you find new books? Where do you get book recommendations? How do you keep track of your TBR (to be read) list?
P.S. Only one more week until Christmas!! 🎄
I get a lot of book suggestions from podcasts - specifically Sarah's Bookshelves Live and Currently Reading. One of the co-hosts of Sarah's Bookshelves Live, Catherine, has a blog so I get reading suggestions from here, too (https://gilmoreguidetobooks.com/). She reads a lot of ARCs so I can get ideas for things coming out that I haven't heard of. I also get recommendations from other bloggers, like you, NGS, Stephany, and Nicole, to name a few.
ReplyDeleteI used to use Goodreads to track what I wanted to read but now I pretty much exclusively use libby. I have a TBR tag so I will add books to that when I hear about them. I have one main TBR tag, one for book club, and one for faith books (I'm going on a bit of a faith exploration journey...). So if I have some holds available, I'll look through my TBR list and figure out what to add to my hold list.
Your TBR method seems like a good one; I had a wish list on OverDrive and it migrated over to Libby but I have not really updated it since then, so it is still titled "wish list" and I do the same as you, as in, when I have space for a hold, I go there to find something.
DeleteI have a question for you though -- the good thing about GR was that once I changed it to "currently reading" it would leave the "want to read" shelf and move over, but now I have to manually remove the "wish list" tag once I have borrowed or read a book. What is your strategy for that?
Oh I'm glad you liked that book and I'm glad you and Lisa both get suggestions from me! I typically get suggestions from people I know on IG or FB, or bloggers. I have to know their tastes though, because one woman's five star is another's two, you know what I mean? I don't use goodreads much but maybe I should try to curate my friends a little more and figure out who likes what. I have had goodreads for years but I think I don't use it well. It just generally makes me mad because I'll love a book and see it get panned, or vice versa.
ReplyDeleteI love the organization aspect of GR as it is a good way for me to remember what I have read, and I have found that you do have to take the ratings with a grain of salt. Of course that is the same as Yelp or any other rating system where you don't know the tastes or experiences of the other raters. I was traveling once and I was looking for a place to eat and the folks on Yelp gave Burger King high stars...um, no. However, it is a good place to start, both on GR and on Yelp!
DeleteNowadays I get my book recommendations mostly from other bloggers! I don't listen to any reading podcasts specifically, but occasionally I'll get a book idea from a podcast I'm listening to. I really need to get more organized though- sometimes If I'm reading blogs and I want to remember a book I'll jot it down, or sometimes I"ll just take a screenshot. It would be good to have one master list with the books, and who recommended it. Okay, that will be one of my goals for 2024.
ReplyDeleteGoals! Yay! I find for most things, I have to have a list, as I will NEVER remember what I heard or where I heard it unless I do! I also do like to (1) thank the person who told me and (2) see how often we match up so that I know whether or not I should take their recommendations!
DeleteI get my book suggestions from friends, podcasts, and Goodreads. I subscribe to Goodreads daily email that sends me a list of what my friends have rated/are reading/added to their shelves lately, and I love using that for book ideas!
ReplyDeleteInteresting! I did not even know that was an option. I wonder if you can do it for only five star ratings, as that is what I want to read! What podcasts do you use to find the books?
DeleteI get a lot of insight from reading the book reviews in the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the NYT. I used to subscribe to the NYT Book Review newsletter, but it was impossible to keep up with. I get some suggestions from friends IRL and online, but many are reading mysteries, and I don't read those (I kind of topped out on that genre in my youth, thanks to constant consumption of Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden, etc). I don't read as much as I'd like to; freelance editing has kind of ruined my ability to read for pleasure.
ReplyDeleteI get that! I had a lull in reading when I was doing long days at work back in the early 2000s. We were working 12 hour days and we're reading corporation docs all day and I was not really in the mood to read when I got home. No mysteries? What about thrillers? Sometimes when I need something mindless, that is what I turn to.
DeleteI use goodreads too and I am the same as you in sometimes needing it to remind mer I've already read a book. I usually get recommendations from other bloggers, friends and family, Modern Miss Darcy and also book recommendations from podcasts (not book podcasts, just general podcasts where the podcaster has read a book that sounds interesting). Our library also has lists of recommended reads in a variety of genres and subjects. When I put a book on my TBR that hasb een recommended by another blogger I usually put their name in the private notes section on goodreads.
ReplyDeleteThat is a great idea to put the person's name in the private notes!! I started to do tags but was not very diligent about it and so it was not really as effective as it could have been. Also I like the idea of doing it in a private way, even if I was using a code or initials or whatever.
DeleteThank you for this wonderful post. I use my library system for book recommendations. Also, fellow bloggers. I am astonished how much people read. It is quite inspiring! After I started blogging and reading other people's blogs, my reading went down. I am sorry to say but book cover and inner jacket description is also what can convince me. Merry Christmas!
ReplyDeleteFunny, my blog writing and commenting is probably not as good as it could be due to my reading! So I guess we go in ups and downs! Merry Christmas to you and yours!!
DeleteGoodreads, blog posts, instagram, podcasts, friends, book club, wandering the library.
ReplyDeleteI used to wander the library, but ever since the pandemic, I stopped checking out hard books and therefore stopped going into the library! I need to remedy that.
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