What next?

What next? What book will I read next? How do you get your hands on that next good read? Perhaps you have a stack waiting on your bedside table. But is there anything inspiring there that will capture your interest and attention?

Here are some ideas for when you may be short of something to read.

You can always look at the best-seller lists in the weekend newspapers, but often these will remain stagnant for weeks on end. Harry Potter dominated the top 10 sellers for so long it was ridiculous. Now the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer are slow to be toppled from the top.

Your local bookshop will regularly publish catalogues that could whet your appetite.

Amazon is a good website to go to because you can sign in to get personalised recommendations. Your search results are retained and further recommendations are made to you based on your lists.

Library Thing is a great social networking website for readers. You can catalogue your own library of books at home or use it as a place to list your favourite reads and based on this you can easily link to other books with the same tags or other readers with similar reading tastes. Go to their Zeitgeist to find a huge array of links and lists. You can also search by tags, for example, you might like to search for “France and travel”. This is my first point of call for finding new reading material for myself. Click here to find out what a Zeitgeist is, if you don’t already know.

Wikipedia has a list of best-selling books which may remind you of that classic you have always wanted to read.

WhatshouldIreadnext is a cute little website that attempts to answer this question for you. You have to register and then list books you have read and based on this list it will find other titles that may interest you. It is rather limited in its power and depth.

Read everything by your favourite author? “Who else writes like…?” by Roy and Jeanne Huse is a book commonly found in local libraries that can help you identify an author who writes in a similar style as your favourite author.

Who writes like from Coffs Harbour City Library offers links to websites to help you find authors.

Goodreading magazine is a great monthly magazine for Australian readers that offers reviews, excerpts, interviews and more great information.

Or you could go to your local library and ask a Librarian. They tend to be rather well-read and know current trends in reading and are more than happy to help you find a good book to read.

Another option is to join a local book club. This also prompts you to read books that you might not otherwise read.

You are what you read

Are you influenced by what you read? Does your mind absorb the ideas set down by others? Do you live inside the scenes created, even temporarily? I suppose that’s why reading fiction is a form of escapism.

 

As a Librarian it is no surprise that I value books and reading for self improvement. I value learning from the experiences, and thoughts that others have worked so hard to set down in words. The more you read the more you learn. Even if you don’t retain it all and reject some ideas, we grow and evolve by taking on a little bit from each book we read.

 

At the moment I am reading a novel titled “Deception” by Michael Meehan. It is about a young Australian man who traces his ancestry to France in order to unravel his family history. It is exquisitely told, set in the Australian desert, Paris and New Caledonia. He weaves his tale masterfully between the past and the present. I have engaged in tracing my family history in the past and yet for the first time it has occurred to me to trace the one French branch of my family tree. It would be so interesting to learn some more French history while unraveling my own family tree, also fulfilling my love of all things French.

 

Meanwhile someone close to me has discovered they have cancer. It is a shock. I remember reading a few years ago a book titled “Your Life In Your Hands” by Jane Plant. She is a UK scientist who had breast cancer, suffered through chemotherapy, a mastectomy, radiation treatment, and was eventually given 6 months to live. As a scientist she researched the situation thoroughly, eventually having a “light-bulb” moment thinking that in Asian cultures the incidence of breast and prostrate cancer is remarkably low and they don’t eat dairy products. Eliminating dairy products from her diet from that moment the tumors shrank and disappeared altogether. She wrote her book in 2000 and now in 2008 she is alive and cancer free. Her experience, research and discoveries provide hope and practical advice for others facing the cancer death sentence. I gave the book to that person to read and make up their own mind. After all what have they got to lose?

 

Not only are we what we read but we are what we eat!