What should I read next?

Does your love of reading mean you regularly run out of reading material? Never fear, help is at hand - try the Reader Advisory tools below or email us for a librarian-guided selection.

Does your love of reading mean you regularly run out of reading material? Never fear, help is at hand - try the Reader Advisory tools below or email us for a librarian-guided selection.

Check out the sites below for ideas, tips and leads for your next reading:

πŸ‘Œ Librarian's choice πŸ‘Œ

πŸ‘‰Read The Latest Booklist Reader.

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.

πŸ‘‰Librarything

Yes, you can 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 searchbox at the top right of the home page and you'll get a list of similar matches and options which are pretty accurate πŸ‘Œ. And we love their word clouds! They provide descriptors that make you think about which aspect of the book you like πŸ€”

Fiction

πŸ‘‰Fantastic Fiction

-this is great 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!

πŸ‘‰Literature Map

- a 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!


Fact (and fiction)

The three websites below are great resources for fiction too, but their very well-developed non-fiction guidance is a rare strength.

πŸ‘‰Goodreads

  • 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.

πŸ‘‰Love Reading

- presents 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.

Outside the box

πŸ‘‰Whichbook

-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!

πŸ‘‰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 😊

Children and young people

πŸ‘‰National Library's compilation of reader advisory tools for young people

- 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.


πŸ‘‰Commonsense Media

- 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.

πŸ‘‰Still not satisfied?

Let us use our experience with satisfying hungry readers to help you!

πŸ‘‰Click here to ask us for some reader advice.

Use the option "Reader Advisory" in the drop-down menu, and tell us:

  • what you like to read (eg. preferred fiction genres and non-fiction subjects, favourite authors)
  • what you don't like (examples are useful)
  • the last thing you enjoyed reading, and why
  • Any physical parameters eg. it must be large print, never audio-books, not too bulky

With a bit of back and forth we will hopefully launch you on a fresh reading journey