What to read

As anyone who knows me, or has read this blog over time, knows that reading is my favorite activity bar none. Over the years, I have amassed quite a huge collection of books, with the intention of reading them all. Realistically, even if "I had a million dollars" (or a billion) and could afford to do nothing but read, and if I lived healthily for another sixty years, I probably could not read all the books in my possession (much less the books that I would want to read that I do not currently own, or that have yet to be written).

I have belonged to several reading groups over the years. Currently, I lead a group affiliated with my church. In addition, I have had the privelege to have people ask my advice on what book they might enjoy next.

With "so many books, so little time" how DOES one decide what to read? Sometimes, it's happenstance. I come across the same title in several different places (book reviews, best seller lists, recommendations from others, a display at the library). Sometimes, I go for a title because I enjoyed something else that the author has written. Sometimes, I pick something up on a lark based purely on an attraction to the cover and an enticing blurb on inside front matter.

All that being said, I have stumbled on a couple of resources when I'm looking for a special 'something'. This desire for a special 'something' to read is much akin to a hunger for a midnight snack. You know the feeling. You go downstairs and 'shop' the refridgerator not knowing what it is that you want, but hoping that something will call to you to satiate the amorphous desire for that particular morsel.

The first resource I'd like to recommend is Book Browse. The site is a great resource for reviews of current (and recent in the last few years) fiction. If you become a member (which I did) the site recommends books based on othter books that you've liked. Say that you are like me and were one of the ten people who really liked Michael Crichton's Timeline. Book browse recommends James Patterson's The Jester, Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Traveler's Wife, and Susan Price's The Sterkarm Handshake. I read and enjoyed the first two, so I guess I'll have to add the third to my bottomless list of books that I'd like to read.

Another resource that I highly recommend is usually available through your local library. NoveList is a service of Ebsco publishing. Using their search feature, you can put in a few keywords for a type of novel that you are looking for, and the database will usually supply you with a number of potential candidates. For example, if you were looking for fiction relating to immigrants in Boston, you could search the keywords "immigrant" and "Boston" and you might hit on The Garden of martyrs by Michael C. White.

My latest find is a site that recommends titles based on what you have read. The Library Thing allows you to track your reading history and/or titles that you own. Based on any individual title that you have read, it will recommend other titles based on what other people, who have read that title, have also read (or have in their collections). One of the more interesting features of the site is that it also has an "unrecommended" feature. So, say you liked Crichton's Timeline. The Library Thing un-suggests that you read Vladimir Nabokov's Ada; or Ardor: a family chronicle. Good to know. Then again, it's Russian, so there's little danger that I would have voluntarily picked that one up any way.

So, undecided about what to read next? Try one of the above resources. The Library Thing is free. Then again, so is asking me!