Where do I find good books?
We know now that for many, many reasons, we should be "well read." That is to say, the more we read, the more capable we will be at communicating with other people, holding intelligent conversations on a wide variety of topics, demonstrating our intelligence, and networking with ease. These skills are absolutely indispensible to the successful professional. Fortunately, reading is as enjoyable as it is valuable.
I want to point out that not all books are created equal. Some are fun, easy reads, while others are deeper, more complex, more stimulating and more rewarding. The first kind of book is the kind you may take to the beach. The second is the kind of book that will take you to a higher level.I have complied a list for you here of various places to find books of all kinds.
Amazon.com is a good place to start. Because Amazon is designed to sell books, they make it very easy for you to find books you like, recommend similar books, see what other people who bought or viewed your books bought as well, read reviews, even create wishlists that friends and family can access to buy books for you. That doesn't mean you have to spend money on Amazon! You can find books of interest here, then order them from the Chicago Public Library for free.
The New York Times Books Section is the place to find out what the bestselling books in the country are. On this page you can link to the Sunday Book Review, The Bestseller Lists, even a section on First Chapters where you can read entire first chapters of books. And of course, there are many, many, book reviews.
National Public Radio (if you don't listen to NPR, you should! 91.5 FM in Chicago) has a book section as well. You can listen to the audio files, and you can find recommended books online. There are several radio spots about books, and you can link to information about the featured books from the book section. You'll find "NPRs Summer Books 2008," where you can link to the Critic's List, Three Books, Book Tour, Books We Like, You Must Read This, Cooking and Cookbooks, even a section on excerpts that you can read. There is a Crime in The City series I found in there for those who like mysteries and crime dramas. Since this is all from National Public Radio, you can listen to the broadcasts of all these programs and reviews as well.
Blogs are a great place to find out about books. If you find a few blogs that you like, run by someone who share your interests, then you can get suggestions that you know you'll enjoy. You can put up your own blog as well. While searching the NPR information I found this blog, Book Club Girl, and immediately I recognized some of the most amazing books I have ever read. I already trust this blogger to recommend more books I will love. Book Club Girl, like most bloggers, has a list of links to other blogs. Those blogs all have links to more blogs. And so on. Check around, and see what you can find. Make sure to tell me about anything really good you find, and I'll add the link to this site.
In the process of putting together this website, I learned of a couple more types of websites for bibliophiles. I actually heard about the next type of website from hearing this on NPR. These are social networking sites for readers, where you can post and talk about what you are reading, and a whole bunch of other craziness! I found Tupac Shakur's book collection, among other things, on librarything.com. In addition to influential and well known African American authors like Alex Haley, Lorraine Hansberry, Richard Wright, Leroi Jones, Maya Angelou, W.E.B. DuBois, Malcolm X, Alice Walker, and John Howard Griffin, Tupac was interested in Jewish Mysticism, Chinese and Italian philosophy, Spanish Literature, Buddhism, and cultural literacy itself, among many other things. Tupac Shakur was well read, and it's no surprise. We are on Librarything as well! I put us there. It's a group called English 99. You can click on my profile (member name English99) to see the books on my list. Other social networking sites for book lovers include Goodreads, Shelfari, aNobii and BookJetty
My all time favorite books are not on my bookshelf. That is because I keep giving them away. They are so good I want other people to read them too. When you are done with a book, you can keep it, give it to a friend, or trade it on a bookswap site. I found two such sites, bookmooch and paperbackswap. Complete the circle, trade your books if you want to, and keep on reading.