Discussion: Where Do You Find Books to Read?

Photo credit: Nomadic Lass on Flickr
Books! Glorious books! I currently have 130 novels in my TBR shelf on Goodreads, and even though I try to make sure I’m always in the middle of reading something, the list is ever-growing. I doubt it’ll ever stop (and I don’t want it to).

Which got me thinking! My method of finding books to read has changed pretty drastically over the years (which I’m pretty happy about, because it’s easier than ever to find good books to read). Nowadays, my book-discovery sources are pretty easy to pinpoint:

  • Twitter. This is easily the biggest one, in part because I follow loads of writers who coincidentally love reading (surprise!) and love recommending books they read (I know, shocking!) and also because I follow writers who get books deals and a few years later, voila! Book in my hands.

    But this is pretty easy proof of how important word of mouth is. I’d wager a guess that most of the books I buy nowadays were recommended to me by either a blog post or someone on Twitter. 

  • Goodreads. I like browsing on Goodreads, particularly a down-the-rabbit-hole-like search where I somehow end up looking for one thing and finding a whole host of new books to add to my list. Considering I keep my list of TBR books on Goodreads, I guess it’s not really a surprise that I also find books to read there. So there’s that. 

  • Bookstores. I do still go into bookstores! I actually love doing this, and I’m happy to report that I do still discover books while in an actual bookstore. This, to me, is the most exciting way to find books (and also most tempting because it’s in my hand and I want to read it and the register is just over there…). 

  • Giveaways. I mean, this isn’t a usual thing for me, but I came home from RT14 with a stack of books I got for free. And while many of them I was already interested in reading, some of them I didn’t really know much about—but now I’ll read them, and if I like them, I’ll buy the sequels. Yay!

So those are my primary book-discovery sources—now I want to hear from you. Where do you find books to add to your TBR list?

Twitter-sized bite:
Where do you find books to add to your TBR list? Join the discussion on @Ava_Jae's blog! (Click to tweet)

4 comments:

  1. Jen DonohueJuly 30, 2014 at 10:22 AM

    Well, the new books coming into the library are a good start place for me ;)

    Also book blogs, both by writers and other people. Agents I'm looking at. Word of mouth from authors I already like.

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  2. Ava JaeJuly 31, 2014 at 7:15 AM

    Library! That's a good one. I definitely would have included it if I actually spent a lot of time in libraries (which I don't mostly because I like to permanently collect the books I read, plus I have an obsession with newly printed books).


    Book blogs are definitely a huge one. I hadn't thought of agents, but that's a great point—never a bad idea to read some of the client books of agents you're considering.


    Thanks, Jen!

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  3. BrianaJuly 31, 2014 at 1:03 PM

    I find a lot of books to read with Goodreads and by visiting my local bookstore. Another great source? If you type your favorite book into Amazon, it'll give you some related books to check out. :)

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  4. Ava JaeAugust 4, 2014 at 6:16 AM

    That's true! I hadn't thought of that, but you're right—Amazon does give recommendations for related books. I don't think I've ever had one of their recs turn into a purchase for me personally...but still useful!

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