What the title says. I’m looking for some books to fit my mood and I’m having the hardest time. It’d also be fun to be able to search outside of the box sometime and widen my reading scope.

I saw a post with people joking about what books they’d swipe left on, but that made me wonder if there were actually any good apps for recommendations?

I’ve tried asking Reddit (some great insights but no luck with that I’m looking for atm), browsing the bookstore in person like the olden days, a few websites but they were all pretty lacking. I heard ChatGPT is helpful but I haven’t found any good ones that let you ask without paying.

Anyway, how do you find your next favorite reads?

  • The_Sceptic_Lemur@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    I browse bookstores. And by now I‘m secure in my habit to totally be judging a book by its cover. Well, not completely, but I‘m a total sucker for good book cover design. And if a book has a good cover design I‘ll be much more likely to pick it up and give it a closer look. Sometimes also titles stick out to me. Good book cover design + interesting title will automatically upgrade books into round 2 of giving it a closer look.

    By now book covers are actually quite a good estimator for what kind of vibe a book has and if I might enjoy it. Book cover designs usually follow certain rules (for example: YA use a lot of pastel colors and have a distinct character drawing style, crime novel covers tend to be dark (unless it‘s meant for a light summer holiday read then they‘re often blue), sci-fi works a lot with very clear and crisp designs & drawings and fantasy hardly ever have a reduced or minimalistic design, but tend to be quite busy). And the design choices give me an impression about the book and if I might enjoy it. I‘m probably more drawn to books which somewhat defy the covet tropes of their genre or which just have a design I really enjoy. A good example for my book buying habit is probably „Rivers of London“. It‘s one of my favorite books (actually book series) and I picked it up in a store because the title made me curious (I‘m a big fan of London and fantasy books set there spark my interest automatically) and it had a really really lovely sketch of a London map on the cover. In the US, the book was released under the title „Midnight riot“ with a very standard, more crime book like cover with a picture of a male shadow running in the night. Super boring. I doubt that it would have even registered with me in a shop.

    So long tangent short: I do love good book cover designs and they have quite the impact on whether I may pick up a book and give it another look. I probably have missed out on good books this way but I also have made some unexpected great finds. And I do love book covers so I‘ll stick with it.