This is probably asked here a lot so i apologise. Almost every day i think about siting down, and having a nice read, but i just dont know how to find the books i like.
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Il give that a try, thanks.
Yes, libraries are the best because you can browse in the shelves, and even take home a stack of books to dip into, and bring them back, all for free. If they hadn’t been around so long we’d be more aware how radical that is.
Try to remember your favorite books as a kid, because that will help clue you in on types of books you might like now. And maybe you’d feel like checking out one or two of your childhood favorites, the librarian isn’t going to judge you.
So real. I used to go to a particular branch and saw the same librarian a lot. One time I was feeling in a rut so I asked her to give me a few recommendations. She gave me four books and they were all fantastic and to my taste.
Go to a bookshop and don’t mind judging books by their covers. Just see what appeals to you, which titles and what covers you like. Pick a nice looking book and read the back. If you still like the sound of it, start reading. If you’re 10 pages in and have been standing there like an idiot, you’ve probably found your book.
Go to the library, have a browse. If a cover (or blurb or whatever) interests you, sit down and read the first chapter or 20 pages or something like that. If, after that, you want to keep going then you’ve found a book you’ll probably like :)
Take your time, there’s no rush.
Or, alternatively, find some short story collections in a genre of tv/games/movies you like.
Honestly I just read things at random. Lots of places have “free trials” so to speak so you can figure out if it’s for you. Some books I never thought I’d enjoy but ended up liking it
Just try a book, if you’re not feeling it, just quit and start a new one! There’s nothing wrong with not finishing a book, just try a bit of everything and you’ll figure out what your looking for pretty quickly.
What types of movies, tv shows or games do you like? Fantasy, horror, comedy etc… Once you settle on a genre to start with, hit up online best of book lists for that genre. Goodreads can be a start, or hit up your libraries for additional recommendations. Once you start diving in, find an author you click with and then you can get more recommendations from that.
well what stuff do you like in other media?
Goodreads gave me some really on-the-nose recommendations for a while but idk how much data about yourself you wanna give them to do it.
What topics interest you? Do you like fantasy, romance, sci-fi, thrillers, non-fiction?
I’d start from that and try and find recommendations from your favourite genres.
For general authors if you want something to hook you, I don’t think you can go wrong with Stephen King, Blake Crouch and Dennis Lehane. They tend to be fast-paced and maybe a good introduction if you want to get into reading. Oh and anything written by Terry Pratchett!
You can judge a book by its cover. Grab a book off the shelf read it and if you dont like it then return it to the library and repeat. I dont finish half the books I get out and I dont waste time on them. If I dont enjoy it after the first few chapters I drop that shit. Its expanded my taste I found a lot of authors that are really good. Books I thought were going to be shit turned out good and ones i thought good turned out shit(time travelers wife)
I highly suggest short story collections. There are free ebooks of them (Some of the Best of Tor.com, for example). This way you only sink roughly 10 to 20 pages per story while sampling different authors’ writing styles.
A large barrier for me was finding authors who write in a manner that meshed with the language of how I think. I gravitate to simple declarative language (ex: Kurt Vonnegut, Octavia E Butler, etc).
Bet you might also like Lou Reed’s style of songwriting— namely on Velvet Underground’s albums.
Reverse engineer it - what kind of movies/shows do you like? See if they started out as books and read them. If there is no book, google what kind of books are similar to the show/movie.
StoryGraph
Search for and add the books that you have read. Ask it for suggestions based upon your read history.
Try some short story analogies.
A best mysteries will have a cozy who-dun-it, a violent thriller, a cryptogram, and others.
Same with science fiction or romance.
Also, here are two books that cover a variety of genes.
‘Night Soldiers’ by Alan Furst. In 1935 a Fascist mob kills a young Bulgarian. His brother is recruited by the KGB. After training in Moscow he is sent to the Spanish Civil War. History/espionage/love/politics.
‘The Harlem Shuffle’ by Colson Whitehead. Harlem businessman just wants to be able to sell quality furniture to the community and lead a quiet life with his family. But it’s 1960s and a Black man has to make certain compromises, like fencing stolen jewelry for psychotic crooks and crooked cops.
History/race relations/crime/comedyhttps://standardebooks.org/ebooks
This website creates free ebooks from books in the public domain. You can download as many as you want.
You can sort by genre, length or popularity. Download a few options starting with the shorter reads so you can get a feel of what you like reading.
Since they are free, you don’t need to feel bad about DNF(did not finish) and moving on to find something you enjoy more.
Good luck!
