Discussion: Where Do You Find Books to Read?

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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)

Why Have a Yearly Reading Goal?

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In 2012, I had a goal of reading twenty books. That may not sound like much to some of you, but it was more than double what I read in 2011, and it seemed like a manageable and attainable goal. I’m now reading my twenty-first book of the year (I keep track using Goodreads), which will certainly be completed before the new year rings, and I have to say, I’m really glad that I kept myself accountable this year.

While many writers often talk about keeping daily writing goals, reading goals don’t seem to be as widely of a talked about thing. I suppose while the relevance of writing goals to writing is obvious, the importance of keeping a yearly reading goal may seem a bit more nebulous.

2011 was the first year that I attempted to meet a reading goal. While I failed to meet the goal that year (in my weak defense, I started late), it motivated me to focus on completing my goal the next year. When it became clear that I was going to meet my original goal of ten books early, I bumped it up to fifteen, then twenty. Next year I’ll be going for twenty-five.

Now some of you may be wondering what the point of having a reading goal is, and while I’ve laid out why it’s so important for writers to read in the past, I’ve found that keeping a reading goal is tied in very closely to actually reading more (versus intending or wanting to read more).

You see, most writers are aware that it’s important to read, and many non-writers are well aware that reading is a healthy and enjoyable habit. Many people kick off the New Year with a goal to read more, but the problem is, without a specific reading goal, it’s hard to measure what reading more actually means. After all, how will you know if you’ve met your goal if you haven’t detailed what it means to read more?

For me, having a measurable number to reach for kept me motivated to keep searching for books and continuing to read. It reminded me that I had a goal to meet, and in order to reach that goal I had to set some time aside to sit down and actually read. Without a specific, measurable goal to strive for, I honestly don’t think I would have read even half as much as I did this year. In fact, looking back at my record over the years, I can say with quite a bit of certainty that I wouldn’t have come near twenty books without a reading goal.

Look, if you’re a writer, or want to be a writer, you need to be reading. There isn’t an exception to the rule for this, and I’ve detailed the reasons why in this post, but the point is that you need to be reading, and keeping a yearly reading goal keeps you honest and helps you to measure whether or not you’re reading as much as you believe you should be.

Do you keep a yearly reading goal? If so, did you meet your goal this year? If not, will you be keeping one next year?

Mini Book Reviews: The False Prince & Re-Reading

Photo credit: Goodreads

So I’ve found that now that I’ve been reading more, I’ve really enjoyed the mini-book review system in which I give a little blurb about everything I’ve read over the past thirty days. Hopefully you lovely readers enjoy the system as well.

Now I’ll admit I’ve been a little negligent with the mini-book review system as I failed to post one last month, largely due to the fact that I’ve been doing a lot of re-reading as of late. In honor of The Hunger Games movie release, I re-read the trilogy in March, and now as Insurgent by Veronica Roth will be released in a DAY, it goes without saying that I spent time this month re-reading Divergent. (If you’d like to see my review, I posted it a while back here).

However! Divergent wasn’t the only book I read this month as I was fortunate enough to see an ad for The False Prince by Jennifer A. Nielsen, which lead me to track down the online sample, which lead me to promptly buy the book. All very fortunate indeed, because I loved it.

Firstly! The summary from Goodreads:

"THE FALSE PRINCE is the thrilling first book in a brand-new trilogy filled with danger and deceit and hidden identities that will have readers rushing breathlessly to the end. 

In a discontent kingdom, civil war is brewing. To unify the divided people, Conner, a nobleman of the court, devises a cunning plan to find an impersonator of the king's long-lost son and install him as a puppet prince. Four orphans are recruited to compete for the role, including a defiant boy named Sage. Sage knows that Conner's motives are more than questionable, yet his life balances on a sword's point -- he must be chosen to play the prince or he will certainly be killed. But Sage's rivals have their own agendas as well. 

As Sage moves from a rundown orphanage to Conner's sumptuous palace, layer upon layer of treachery and deceit unfold, until finally, a truth is revealed that, in the end, may very well prove more dangerous than all of the lies taken together.

An extraordinary adventure filled with danger and action, lies and deadly truths that will have readers clinging to the edge of their seats."

Besides the action and fabulous pacing, what I really loved about The False Prince was Sage—the first-person narrator. It can be very difficult to pull off an unreliable narrator convincingly, especially in first person, but Nielsen nailed it. Sage is witty and admirable, but flawed and makes more than a few face-desk-worthy mistakes, and to top it off, there are twists that I really enjoyed.

For all those reasons and more I highly recommend it.

What have you read/re-read as of late? Anyone else re-reading Divergent in anticipation of Insurgent? 

Social Media for Writers

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I have social media on the brain this week.

I’m sure many of you have seen little explanations of what each social media site is useful for, but in much of my searching, I’ve only seen a few directed especially to writers. SO. Figuring this must be amended, I thought I’d make one myself, based on my experience.

I’ll say right from the start I can’t account for all social media sites (there are SO. MANY.) and I think it’d be unfair for me to judge sites I’m not on, so I’m going to limit this to the ones I’m familiar with.

So here we go! In order of usage!

Twitter—I’m sure most of you guessed this would be first on the list. I use Twitter probably more than I should (but I regret nothing). Regardless of my not-addiction, I’ve found Twitter to be an enormously helpful tool for writers. Not only is it chock full of excellent, bookmark-worthy links (my bookmarks bar has exploded since joining Twitter, EXPLODED), but it just so happens there are tons of writers on Twitter (who knew?).

Twitter is a great place to connect with others in your niche, make friends, promote your work (and the work of your new Twitter friends) and find fantastic blogs. If you write and you don’t have a Twitter, go get one. Seriously. Go do it. Right now. I’m waiting.

My Twitter page. 

Blogger—I say Blogger because (obviously) I use the Blogger platform, but Word Press is another fantastic option. I suppose I should have titled this one blogging, but I digress.

Blogging is great for writers for many different reasons. First, it gets you writing. I know that seems obvious, but you need to write consistently to maintain a blog, and learning about self-imposed deadlines is essential to anyone’s writing career.

The second reason is slightly less obvious: networking. I wrote an entire post about how it’s not about you, and I’m going to say it again: building your blog isn’t only about building your blog. Go out there and connect with other bloggers. Create a blog roll, promote each other. Making connections with other writers is just as important (if not more) as building your blog.

tumblr—I was really confused when I first started a tumblr account. Who am I supposed to follow? What do I do? WHAT DOES THIS BUTTON DO?

I wouldn’t call myself a tumblr expert, I still stumble around the site and I’m relatively sure I haven’t used it to its maximum potential, however there is a LOT of good stuff on tumblr. From fantastic quotes, to articles, to amazing pictures and works of art, tumblr has a little bit of everything. Great for inspiration (and distraction).

Best part? You can link it to Twitter and whatever you reblog (the equivalent of re-tweeting for my Twitter fiends) will be sent to your Twitter to share with your followers.

See why having a Twitter account is so useful? Hmmm?

My tumblr. 

Facebook—You’re probably wondering why this is so low on the list. It’s not that Facebook isn’t useful (it is), it’s just that I haven’t quite maximized the potential of my page yet and I did say I was ordering this list on my usage.

Despite that, Facebook is another great place to connect with other writers and share with each other. The like button has virtually invaded the internet (try to count how many times you see it while surfing the web in one day—it’s a LOT), which makes it another great platform that should definitely be on your list.

My Facebook page. 

Goodreads—I’ll be honest, I haven’t utilized my Goodreads page AT ALL. I go there to update what I’m reading and find out more information about books I might be interested in. Occasionally, I’ll browse the forums, vote on various lists and post a book review. That’s about it.

But just because I haven’t used it as much as I could, doesn’t mean it’s not useful. Goodreads is chock full of readers and writers (big surprise, right?) just waiting to be connected with! Plus, it’s a pretty fantastic site for discovering books. And it’s kind of fun to build your online bookshelf.

My Goodreads page.

There are other platforms of course (Google + for example) that I’ve yet to check out, so I can’t really tell you about them. However, the theme with social media is pretty much the same: sharing. Every site does it a little differently, but in the end, the goal (regardless of the site) is to share and make connections.

So go out there and make connections.

What social media sites do you use? Which are your favorite?