Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

Hey there,

I'm doing a small research on how people find book recommendations. Finding interesting books has become very complex. I created a survey to study it.

https://goo.gl/forms/KV0ixLwGvBUYZiOi1

I'd love interesting discussion about how to find interesting books.

I hear about a lot of books by visiting my favourite authors' social media - not only do they promote their own upcoming work, but they'll often mention friends of theirs who are also authors, or a book they've read recently that they feel is underrated, or books which particularly inspired them.

I also watch Booktube videos.

Hi Ignacio, I just added the word “poll” to the title of the topic as I know that people love answering polls and that could bring more responses for your research 😉

I added this as a comment to your questionnaire, but thought I’d share it here to fuel the discussion: today I don’t often actively look for book recommendations anymore, as I’m trying to read books that are already on my to read shelf, but I add new books to it when I come across them mainly on goodreads and booktube.

Before I joined goodreads in 2015, I mostly read books of authors I already knew, or if I wanted something new I’d just browse shelves at the book store and read blurbs of books with intriguing titles or attractive covers 😉

I get some from this group and put them on my to be read list, but mostly I use Novelist, at the library, where I can put in the parameters of what I want to read and see what comes out. I wanted a book with rooster in the title for the Chinese animal prompt and I put in "rooster" and "mystery" and got exactly what I wanted.

I’m a little like Sophie now, in that I don’t often actively look for recommendations any more, unless I’m totally stuck for something on a challenge prompt. I tend to just find books more organically - mostly from my friends here, and this group.

I find my books almost exclusively here. Either through my groups or searching for challenge prompts ( but sometimes those are books I'm not that excited about reading). Once in awhile I'll get a recommendation from my mom or maybe my brother or aunt. Very occasionally I'll add something I see on book tube. But I really only watch Books and Lala.

Before Goodreads, I found most of my books by just browsing the library shelves and seeing what popped out at me. Now, I go by books I recognize, mostly from people reading them and recommending them on Goodreads. I follow a few book bloggers, but I mostly just use them to reiterate books I've already heard about on here.

I learn about books from friends on GR and from The Millions Most Anticipated newsletters; and of course once I find an author I like I start working my way through her backlist and try to read any of her new books as they come out.

When I see an interesting book mentioned somewhere, I immediately go to GR to see if my friends have reviewed it. If no one I know has reviewed it, I will look at the most popular reviews, and then I'll filter the reviews to look at the 1 star or 2 star reviews, because I find negative reviews to be the most helpful for me.

In addition to the ways mentioned by others, I also read the New York Times Sunday book section. In particular I like the column ( sorry don’t know it’s name) in which people send in requests for very specific topics. One column was books written by people from Maine...the full year residents,not just summer folk. Another time, someone asked for suggestions for poetry that would be good to use in a writing group at a women’s prison. I always find the answers interesting, even if I don’t always add them to my TBR. I think the column runs every other Sunday.

I love book awards so that is my primary way of finding new books -books that have been recently nominated as well as the lists of nominees from previous years. I also like to peruse publisher websites for new and upcoming titles, and often find myself following rabbit trails of related books. And I like lists - bests of the year from various sources, Millions Most Anticipated, New York Public Library recommendations, the many lists on Book Riot, etc.

I found some new interesting concepts in your answers, thanks for that. I think today there is not a problem on finding recommendations but deciding on whether that recommendation has quality.

Sophie, thanks for tagging the post properly.

I actually have a lot of troubles finding recommendations. Goodreads on that front so far is hit or miss, recommendation algorithm is very wonky, but every now and then I stumble across something interesting. Sometimes I stumble on interesting books on other people's profiles, but it's quite tedious to find people with similar tastes. I usually read description of the book, rating and if I'm still unsure I look through reviews (with checking 1-2 stars reviews).
My husband recommended me quite a lot of books I enjoyed, but since he has quit reading quite a while ago that well is starting to dry. Now I'm thinking of asking mutual friend for recommendations, but I don't know if I will in the end.

I don’t have too many problems finding interesting books. I have quite a few friends with similar reading tastes and we are always swapping suggestions. I also listen to a couple of podcasts that recommend books and I read blog posts.

When comes to reading books by authors I haven't read before, I usually get my recommendations from GR groups; if lots of people in this group say they like book, and it looks up my alley, I add it to my tbr. I occasionally add books recommended by my favorite authors or by booktubers I watch, but that's less common. My friends and family don't really have the same taste in books, so I only rarely take their recommendations.