Finding a new book to read isn’t the easiest thing in the world, especially if you want to try out a new author.
Since I move a lot, and I’m not able to carry all my favorite books with me. I mostly read on Scribd, on my phone.
Once you get accustomed to a certain style and genre it’s difficult to switch
Sometimes I try what the app recommends, but I often quit the book after a couple of pages, either because I didn’t like the story or style or I’ve found it amateurish.
Starting several books in a row and putting them away can be really frustrating and what often happens to me is that I go back to trusted sources, such as Nobel Prize winners, Pulitzer Prize winners or any other prestige award winners or simply put – classics.
Picking up titles approved by others might sound snobbish and rather tasteless but throughout the years I’ve developped a taste for these kinds of books and only these kinds of books; books labeled as good by some other people in chared of giving awards.
I’m not going to argue whether these books are better than the others, or whether I have some kind of sophisticated taste or not because that’s not important; there are also Nobel winning books which I hate.
There are as many tastes as there are people and sometimes we share it and most of the times we don’t. There is a book for everybody and it’s good as long as it works like that.
Developing the reading taste is one of the crucial steps towards building yourself as a writer. If you can’t tell bad writing from good, how are you going to judge your own writing?
So, how do I pick a new book?
- First and foremost I rely on the word of mouth. If a friend in whose taste I trust recommends me a book, I will most definitely give it a try.
- As I already said, I pick up the winning books of various prizes.
- I don’t often pick up bestsellers, although I occasionally enjoy reading a book or two from that list.
- However, one of the great sources for picking up a great novel is Goodreads, especially the Annual Goodreads Choice Awards. I can’t stress out how many great titles and authors I’ve found there. The only downside is that I often don’t participate in the vote because I most often read books from the previous year’s winner and nominee lists.
- Sometimes, I read a book after the movie based on that story comes out.
- I never pick up a book based on a title or a cover, or even synopsis. It happened to me more than often that book which synopsis I didn’t like turned to be good and vice versa.
- I never pick up a book from an ad.
- If I like the book from an author I would most likely pick another book from that author and another and…
- I think that wraps everything. What are your methods for picking up new authors and new books?