MHS cyber book club

the art of

BOOK DISCOVERY

Really Cool Steps That I Made Up

These are simply guidelines, not rules

1What Types of Books are you Looking For?

2Find the names of

(well-rated) books

3Research and Read!

Determine What You’re looking for

E.g. My keys.

1

Det

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ine

Reading is RecreationalThe key to discovering great new books is often to know what kinds of books you’re looking for. This lets you know how to search.

Fiction? If so, what kind of fiction? Do you want deep, meaningful and philosophical texts that make you seem educated? Or are you looing for an epic fantasy to escape into whilst you’re reading on the toilet?

Personally: Deep, philosophical “top 100 books of all time” kind of books

2 Find The names of Books

This is the best part!

Something that really helps in this step is a

READING LIST.

Reading lists help you organize the books that you come across and let you know which books you’ve read or have yet to read

They can also provide inspiration and motivation for your reading. Whenever you see your reading list, you can be reminded of all the books that are waiting to be read

Reading lists

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rWhere do you go to find out about books?So you know what you’re looking for – now’s the time to start searching. But where do you go?

Book Clubs

Book Clubs

Places such as the MHS Cyber Book Club can provide us with connections and people who are more than willing to suggest great things that they’ve recently read.

People – Friends, Family, Librarians

People

Don’t these guys just look like that want to give you a hand?

Other people – especially people who have similar reading tastes to yours can often recommend books that you’ll probably like.

Librarians in all libraries are more than happy to offer suggestions!

Newspapers + Bookshops/ Libraries

Newspapers, Magazines, Bookshops and Libraries

Media such as newspapers often have reviews in their arts and culture section.

Just browsing a bookshop or a library can often lead to discoveries of new books, and a lighter wallet.

The Interwebs

The Internet

The internet is one of the best ways to find out about new books that you may never have noticed before.

There’s a vast range of recommendations that exist if you know where to look, and additionally, the internet can provide information about books that you might not be able to get otherwise.

Lets have a look around the internet and see where we can find sources of book recommendations

The cake is a lie!

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rTop 100 ListsOften, editorial websites (such as for newspapers/ editors/ publishers/ etc.) publish “Top 100 Recommended Books” lists.

Often when editors and academics make these lists, these books are books that have ‘contributed to the Western understanding of literature’ and are deep, philosophical, and meaningful (and potentially very boring).

That’s why it’s often good to see ‘popular lists’ and the Top 100 lists which are created by users and individuals.

Modern Library has a great example of one of these lists.http://www.modernlibrary.com/top-100/100-best-novels/

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rTop 100 ListsOften, editorial websites (such as for newspapers/ editors/ publishers/ etc.) publish “Top 100 Recommended Books” lists.

Here’s another example from The Guardian

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rAmazon. comAmazon.com has one of the largest ranges of books that are available for browsing And a great ‘Have you considered…’ mechanism that suggests books that it thinks you would enjoy.

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rAmazon. comAdditionally, they categorize all their books according to genre, and have different lists of popular books (based on things such as: award winners, most popular for the month/year/decade, on the NYT bestseller lists, etc.)

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rAmazon. comAnother great thing about Amazon is the customer reviews often give you a GREAT insight into what the book’s like and what the book is about, things that you like and things that you might not like about the book. The website is almost like a digital friend who can recommend for or against a book.

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rAmazon. comAlso, there are customer discussions which can be a great source of new books to consider.

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rReddit listsReddit often have massive, type/genre-specific lists of recommended books. There’s a focus on ‘educated’ books.

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rReddit lists

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rGoodReadsGoodReads is a social networking site based around books. You can see what all your friends or other people are reading and what they think about the books (as well as professional opinions on the books), you can post your own reviews and your favourite books, and you can also enter discussions about books and contact authors!It has a great discovery tool as well!

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7716140-married-with-zombies

3 Research and Read

The best part!

Research the books that you’ve considered interesting by asking friends their opinion, reading reviews (Amazon/ GoodReads/ elsewhere) or even just jumping straight into the book.And then enjoy reading the books you’ve just discovered!

Research and Read

see the pages read the pages

Cyber Book Club 2012STAY AWESOME