Where do you get your book recommendations?

Tom Dunne

As per the title, I am always looking out for new books to read, so I scan the book reviews in the newspapers (usually the Sunday Times and the Sunday Business Post).

So, where do you get your recommendations?

Dades

Got several top recommendations here! (Or in the sci-fi forum...)

Eoin

I'd say this forum mostly - probably because my favourite authors are quite well known and in popular genre(s), so there are lots of people here who could recommend similar authors.

I tried one of those online wizard type sites where you enter the type of book/plot etc you like, and it recommended 4 of Dan Browne's books. So, I gave up on that idea pretty quick.

There was a great thread here on SciFi for beginners, which I keep meaning to dig out.

Tom Dunne

As I am only recently lurking in this forum, does nobody here read non-fiction?

Must post up a reading log.

Dades

I bet if you start a thread looking for non-fiction recommendations (perhaps with some criteria) they'll be crawling out of the woodwork to help!

I'll start: Read "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan!

gaf1983

From a wide variety of sources I suppose. The problem I find with newspaper and magazine reviews is that by their nature they review new books - I find I've so many books on my To Read list to get through that the thought of adding new, sometimes not even published yet books makes me feel under a small bit of pressure!

I find this forum, the amazon.co.uk recommendations (especially People who bought X also bought Y) and the Visual Bookshelf application by LivingSocial on Facebook are also all handy places to get recommendations. Word of mouth would be another source.

I also look at various Top 100 Book Lists if I'm looking for one of the 'classics'. Various ones out there include:

http://www.nationalreview.com/100best/100_books.html

http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlibrary/100bestnovels.html

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/the_complete_list.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/bigread/top100.shtml

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/may/08/books.booksnews

http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlibrary/100bestnonfiction.html

Partly to answer your question, but actually more for a useful exercise for myself, I'm gonna go through the last 10 books I've read/am reading and try to remember why I picked each one up:

1. The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins: had seen it being discussed on many internet forums, also in the media. I have to admit I'm actually listening to the audiobook: an iTouch + knowing my credit card details off by heart = A recipe for mass impulse buys on iTunes like that one.

2. The Road to Serfdom by Friedrich August Von Hayek. A political science lecturer I had in college about four years ago actually recommended this, he said Hayek was a political scientist who could actually write intelligible English so that was gonna be a bonus. I never read back then it when it was on the reading list, but did read about Hayek's ideas, so I was interested to read the original text.

3. Our Culture, What's Left of It? by Theodore Dalrymple. I read an essay of his about French cities' social problems published in an online magazine, can't remember the name of it. That essay was in a link from a discussion about the 2005 French riots over on the Politics forum. I was very impressed at the time with that essay, made a note of it, and three years later bought the book.

4. Star of the Sea by Joseph O'Connor. My cousin recommended it to me though he didn't really say what it was about, though he did allude to some of the styles of language used in the book. While I heard it was fairly well-acclaimed, I think I managed to avoid all reviews of it. Was very impressed when I did read it, perhaps all the more so given that I had no real preconceptions.

5. The Second World by Parag Khanna: saw this displayed prominently in a bookshop in Birmingham last May. Read the jacket cover and thought wow. Basically I'm a bit of a geopolitics nerd, no need for me to read any review of it.

6. The Age of Unreason by Charles Handy. My dad bought this for me. He said it was well spoken of in the eighties, though he hadn't read it himself. Thought it had a snappy title. Wouldn't really read much (any) management type books but enjoyed some of the ideas in this one.

7. The Overlook - Michael Connelly. Another one my dad passed my way. He's a big crime thriller fan. From the entries on the list so far it should be obvious that I'm not. It's not that I don't like the genre, just I tend to read other stuff. Very enjoyable read.

8. The Bottom Billion: Why the poorest countries are failing and what we can do about it by Paul Collier: combination of a striking front cover image of an African kid with carrying an assault rifle half his size; a recommendation from my cousin and from The Economist. Also I wanted to see if the book would answer the question posed in its title. To an extent it did.

9. What does China think? by Mark Leonard. Another high impact cover and title got me buying this one. Also general interest in geopolitics, plus I had read another by Leonard and enjoyed that one.

10. The Best is Yet to Come: Marc Coleman. Didn't read any reviews of this. Saw it in a bookshop when it was published and thought it would be a good read, just have an interest in Irish politics, society and the economy generally. Also find Coleman impressive enough on the radio. Read it this summer, was an interesting read given that the arse was falling out of the economy as I was reading it, a lot of what Coleman criticises about the country was evident in the news stories breaking each week.


So there you have it. I suppose it shows that much of the books I read are just by either judging it by its cover or using word of mouth. Also, only two out of the ten books listed are fiction, this post perhaps shouldn't even be in the Literature forum!

BroomBurner

Get most recommendations from friends and family. Failing that, whatever catches my eye in the bookshop.

If you want a good non-fiction book, Broken Heart by Tim Butcher is a really well written account of his attempt to travel across the Congo.

raah!

I get alot of ideas for books to read from the authors of books themselves, that is I look at their influences and stuff on wikipedia. I get a few from here too.

ZorbaTehZ

gaf1983 wrote: »

http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlibrary/100bestnovels.html

Wow thats a great list cheers for the link.

Tom Dunne

BroomBurner wrote: »

Get most recommendations from friends and family. Failing that, whatever catches my eye in the bookshop.

The problem I find with that is I read vastly different books to most people I know. For example, a work colleague recently saw my current book, Proust and the squid, and thought it was some bizarre sub-aqua reading adventure.

This reason was part of my inspiration for the new forum request in my signature.

/shameless plug

BroomBurner wrote: »

If you want a good non-fiction book, Broken Heart by Tim Butcher is a really well written account of his attempt to travel across the Congo.

I'll have a look at that, thanks!

gaf1983

BroomBurner wrote: »

If you want a good non-fiction book, Broken Heart by Tim Butcher is a really well written account of his attempt to travel across the Congo.

I think it's called Blood River.

Dades

ZorbaTehZ wrote: »

http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlib...estnovels.html

Wow thats a great list cheers for the link.

Frankly I'd be dubious of any "Readers' List" that has two L. Ron Hubbard books in the top ten.

orangecake

http://books.guardian.co.uk/authors/0,6110,94875,00.html

If you click on an author you're interested in and then go to the biography section, there's a 'now read on' heading that suggests other similar authors you might be interested in. Also some pretty good nutshell critiques of each of the authors.

Valmont

Dades wrote: »

Frankly I'd be dubious of any "Readers' List" that has two L. Ron Hubbard books in the top ten.

Well he is a complete nutjob but I've heard he writes good sci-fi. I think that's a great list and I wholeheartedly agree with the top two. Ayn Rand is a genius.

dudara

I joined LibraryThing.com a while back, and one of the features it offers is weighted rankings with other members' libraries. You can see new books added by members with similar libraries. Since I've joined, my Amazon wish list, which I use to track my desired reading has quadrupled. It's a great way to pick up some eclectic recommendations.

Paddy Samurai

Tom Dunne wrote: »

As per the title, I am always looking out for new books to read, so I scan the book reviews in the newspapers (usually the Sunday Times and the Sunday Business Post).

So, where do you get your recommendations?

Try play.com or amazon.com for lots of readers reviews,also you can sample some of the books on amazon.Another way is to checkout authors webpages for their recommendations.Different genres also have dedicated webpages reviewing books ie: http://www.fantasybookreview.co.uk/

eVeNtInE

This post has been deleted.

missmatty

I stumble across new books in many ways but lately I'm finding the 'new books' shelf in the local library is great. That way i try stuff i wouldn't necessarily buy or think I'd like. Oh, and it's free :pac: Picked another book lately which seems good and i've discovered it's a series, which is always a bonus.

Khannie

I've only gotten into reading fiction recently. My book choices (in this order) have been for the following reasons:

Tom Sawyer - Bought it in a 2nd hand book store in Koh Samui, Thailand while looking for "Of Mice and Men" and it wasn't there. Went in looking for "Of Mice and Men" because I read an article where a lady said it had changed her life. Anyway, Tom Sawyer was a really good book.

Huckleberry Finn - Read online that this was considered to potentially be the Great American Novel. Bought it the second I finished Tom Sawyer. Actually preferred Tom Sawyer.

To Kill a Mockingbird - Didn't have "Of Mice and Men" in the library and it was expensive enough, so this was a filler. I got it because I recognised the title tbh. Amazing book.

Of Mice and Men - Some lady said it changed her life. Really good book.

Blaze (King / Bachman) - There wasn't a great selection in the library (Skerries). I was actually looking for "The Long Walk" by the same author and couldn't find it. The library didn't have "The Grapes of Wrath" in, so I was filling the gap 'til it came. It's (he admits this in the introduction) an obvious homage to "Of Mice and Men" which was purely by coincidence. Mightn't have bothered to read it, but it got 4/5 on amazon, so I figured it was at least worth a lash.

The Grapes of Wrath - Starting it this weekend probably. Chose it because it's also on the "Great American Novels" list.

Dune - That's gonna be after "The Grapes of Wrath" because I asked a friend of mine who's a prodigious reader what the best sci fi book he'd ever read was, and this is it.

So that's my logic. In general I'm going with classics. I figure why not go with the really good stuff first? Like I said, not much of a reader before now (at least not of fiction, and I find it difficult enough to get a non-fiction book that I'm interested in).

James-Brod

Well, mostly I read fantasy books and some sci-fi, so main sources are some friends, amazon.com recommendations or just going into the library or bookshop, going to the fantasy section and looking through for a book title that jumps out at me. Probably missing a lot of good books this way, but still.

turgon

Khannie wrote: »

So that's my logic. In general I'm going with classics.

Started reading proper only about 4 months ago, and Ive taken the same tack as you have. As well one of the previous poster put up lings to various top 100 lists which provide good guidance.

After having had to endure Crime and Punishment, which I just didnt get (ill probably return to it), Ive made sure to read one older book, such as Dickens, and then say a more modern one after (just finished A Clockwork Orange) so as not to be "bogged down."

Khannie wrote: »

The Grapes of Wrath - Starting it this weekend probably. Chose it because it's also on the "Great American Novels" list.

It a highly rated book, and deserving too. "In the hearts of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage."