If
you're on the hunt for something new and interesting to read, you have plenty of
places to turn. This week, we're looking at five of the best book recommendation
sites, services, or groups, based on your nominations.
Earlier in the
week, we asked you where you went to find something good to
read—whether it's based on the things you've already read, someone's
suggestions you trust, a website that lets you build a virtual "shelf" of your
favorite titles, or just a discussion group. You responded with tons of great
ideas, but we only have room for the top five. Here's what you said, in no
particular order:
GoodReads is more
than just a book recommendation site, although it excels at helping your find
new books to read based on the ones you enjoy. You can build a virtual "shelf"
of books you own or have already read, share your progress with the books you're
currently reading, rate the books you've read, leave reviews, and connect with
other readers. You can also use those ratings to get book suggestions from the
site's massive database of books. Your friends can make direct suggestions to
you, and even if the book suggestions that the site builds aren't enough, you
can go diving into user-generated book lists, reviews, and more.
One great thing
that many of you mentioned about GoodReads is that you can connect your Amazon
account to quickly build your virtual shelf. As you finish books on your Kindle,
GoodReads will automatically mark the book as complete and update your
recommendations accordingly. It's also hard to understate the power of
GoodReads' community, which many of you called out as well. Some of you noted
that your favorite authors actively use the service too, and they share what
they're reading as well. Read more in its
nomination thread here.
BookBub
While BookBub isn't
strictly a book recommendation service, it does bring you super-low-cost books based on your interests every day. The
service is free, and when you sign up, you tell BookBub what kinds of books you
like to read. From there, you'll get an email from BookBub every day (you can
choose whether it comes in the morning or evening) with book deals for that day.
When we say "deal," we mean it—many of BookBub's titles are free entirely,
$0.99, or just a couple of bucks. In some cases, they're new titles that the
author is trying to get momentum behind, and in other cases they're just great,
under-the-radar titles you might not have discovered otherwise.
I've been a BookBub
member for a year now, and the book suggestions run the gamut from extremely
useful, amazing finds to horribly pulpy "how did this even get published" genre
titles. Your mileage may vary, but the nice thing is that you can tweak your
selections at any time, and the books are always cheap. When those great titles
come along, you'll have to jump on them though—the sales go quickly. Read more
in its
nomination thread here.
LibraryThing
LibraryThing has
been around for a long time (and it made the top five, along with GoodReads, the
last time we asked for your favorite book rec sites) and is still a great
user-powered book ratings, review, and recommendation site. The service calls
itself the world's largest book club, and that's a lot like the overall feel.
Once you sign up, you'll be encouraged to start adding books you've read and
leave reviews for them. Behind its book ratings and reviews though, LibraryThing
is a powerful tool to catalog and organize your entire book collection. It
doesn't take much to add all of the books in your library so you have a running
collection of both your physical books and ebooks all in one place. The service
will also connect to your Amazon account to automatically pull down books you
own and have read.
Thanks to its
massive community, its book recommendations are often spot on, reflective of
users who have libraries like yours and have rated books the way you have. The
basic service is free, and you can add up to 200 books. $10/yr or $25/one time
gets you a premium membership that lets you add and catalog as many books as you
like. Those of you who nominated it noted that its especially good for people
who enjoy non-fiction or books that aren't necessarily in the popular zeitgeist,
and for getting recommendations from people who don't just list the same dozen
titles over and over again. Read more in its
nomination thread here.
Reddit's BookSuggestions Subreddit
If you're a Reddit
fan, the /r/booksuggestions subreddit is a great place to go to see what
everyone's reading, or to get recommendations based on specific authors or
titles you've enjoyed, or see what people suggest in specific genres. Some of
the top threads are community challenges and calls for recommendations on a
specific theme, but it doesn't take much scrolling to find interesting threads
for people looking for specific types of books. One person is bedtime books for their kids that combine epic battles with strong
female characters, another person is interested in science fiction titles without aliens or looming galactic
threats. The sky's the limit, and you can just as easily post your own topic
with what you're looking for.
Those of you who
called it out in the call for contenders praised the subreddit for being equally
weird and interesting, a label often applied to Reddit in general. You'll
definitely find something new and interesting to read, that much is true,
although often the most broad recommendations do sometimes tend to follow what's
popular and in the common consciousness. Still, if you refine your thread as
much as possible and include what you've read and what you're looking for,
you're in for good tips. Read more in
its nomination thread here.
Olmenta
If you're not
interested in registering for accounts, adding your own books, or any of that
hassle, Olmenta can suggest some solid titles to you based on general popularity
and the curation of the people behind the site. It's a simple tiled list of book
covers that the service thinks you should read, and a few genres you can click
on if you're looking for something specific, like business, fiction, children's,
theatre, poetry, or nonfiction, among others. If you see a book you might be
interested in, click on it for a synopsis and a bigger view of the cover, along
with a link to buy the book.
Olmenta couldn't be
any simpler—but it's a double-edged sword. You'll see what's available quickly,
and if you like the suggestions, you'll come back to see updates and new reads.
If you don't, there's not much else for you to see. Olmenta's nomination thread
reflected that simplicity—you noted that it's hassle-free and elegant, and you
don't need to jump through hoops to find a new book. At the same time, the lack
of customization means the suggestions aren't really personalized. Read more in
its
nomination thread here.
The honorable
mentions this week go out to Your local library or indie
bookstore. A number of you noted that there's nothing wrong with
heading to your local library and asking a librarian what to read—after all,
they're the most familiar with their own stacks, and have plenty of suggestions,
tips, and thoughts of their own to offer you. Whether you're looking for some
new, hot title or you want to dive into more obscure areas of literature, you
shouldn't overlook your local library, and the hard-working, highly-trained
people that work there.
Similarly, many of
you suggested heading to your local independent bookstore, especially if you're
looking for niche or specialty books on highly specific topics. Looking for
books on specifically political topics, or independently published authors whose
books are on limited release? Indie bookstores are where you need to go—and the
people that work there are likely to have suggestions for you too. I remember my
days working in a bookstore: Each of us had a specialty area we were happy to
talk about.
Want to make the
case for your personal favorite, even if it wasn't included in the list?
Remember, the top five are based on your most popular nominations from the call for contenders thread
from earlier in the week. Don't just complain about the top five, let
us know what your preferred alternative is—and make your case for it—in the
discussions below.
The Hive
Five is based on reader nominations. As with most Hive Five posts, if your
favorite was left out, it didn't get the nominations required in the call for
contenders post to make the top five. We understand it's a bit of a popularity
contest. Have a suggestion for the Hive Five? Send us an email at tips+hivefive@lifehacker.com!
Photo by
Andrea López.
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