Check out the sites below for ideas, tips and leads for your next reading:
Whether you’re hunting for your next book, selecting for a book group, or getting ideas for kids, you’ll find librarian-approved selections in the latest Booklist Reader, brought to you by your library.
Librarything lets you sign up, catalogue your own books and share them with other members – but you don't have to! Just type an author or title into the search box at the top right of the home page and you'll get a list of similar matches and options, which are pretty accurate. And we love their word clouds! They provide descriptors that make you think about which aspect of the book you like.
Fantastic Fiction is a great site for finding the full list of titles in a series. You can search by author, book title or series title. It also provides author recommendations on other authors – an interesting way to find out what influences or pleases your favourite writers!
Literature Map is visual tool for finding a new author: just type in a favourite author and this site will generate a scattergram of author names – the names nearest to your favourite will be the most similar authors. Our testing had mixed results: great for literary authors, okay for genre fiction authors, and kind of puzzling for non-fiction authors!
The three websites below are great resources for fiction too, but their very well-developed non-fiction guidance is a rare strength.
Goodreads is great for non-fiction. The website provides loads of non-fiction categories for browsing , and you can also search by title or author. A lot of the database is open access. but you can get more personalised results if you sign up (it's free) and build a profile based on your tastes.
This site has curated lists of recommended books across many fiction and non-fiction categories. You'll also find lists of international prize and award winners, with reviews of each title.
This site provides a surprising approach to choosing your next fiction: instead of searching by the usual author, title or genre, you search by mood, geographical location, or character type!
The mood spectrums include quirky options such as beautiful to disgusting / optimistic to bleak / safe to disturbing as well as more conventional spectrums such as happy to sad / funny to serious. You can combine spectrums too: if you want a disgusting-optimistic-funny-sad book this is where you will find it!
TasteDive will guide you to your next fiction or non-fiction book, yes, but also to your next music, film, TV series, podcast or video game. It also provides extensive lists of recommendations, including those created by their audience. If you feel the need to influence other people's entertainment choices, here is your chance.
National library has an extensive compilation of resources. You'll find reviews, booklists and searchable databases here, for children from age zero to late teens. The options include New Zealand and Pasifika tools as well as international ones.
Common sense media is an easy-to-use ratings site for books, movies and computer games for young people, which provides assessments of appropriate age level, and guidance on potentially concerning content. The site provides reviews by parents and by children.
Let us use our experience with satisfying hungry readers to help you!
Put the title "Reader Advisory" in the Subject Line, and tell us:
With a bit of back and forth we will hopefully launch you on a fresh reading journey.
