ANNABEL SMITH

You know that feeling when you’ve just finished an amazing book? Part of you is deeply satisfied but another part is bereft, needing something to fill the gap.

Part of the reason for my reading renaissance has been having a constant stream of books I’m looking forward to. This has been due, in large part, to Goodreads. If you’re not familiar with it, Goodreads is like a version of Facebook where all you talk about is books – BookFace, if you will. You can read reviews, discover people with similar reading taste and follow their reviews, and add books you’re interested in to an ever-growing ‘to-read’ list. Goodreads is my current internet crack pipe, and I can’t recommend it highly enough. However, it takes time to build a network of people to follow, as well as to write reviews and that’s not for everyone.

If you don’t want a long-term relationship, but are up for a fling, here are some sites you might like:

If you type in the name of a favourite writer on gnooks, it generates a map of similar writers – the closer to another writer on the map, the more similar they’ll be.

Bookseer will recommend a book for you based on you entering another book you’ve liked. It’s driven by Amazon, so if you think they’re an evil empire and have taken an oath to thwart them in every way then this one is not for you. However, it does have an icon of a moustache if you save it to your toolbar. And I like that a lot!

Flashlight Worthy claim to be recommending books so good, they’ll keep you up past your bedtime. Flashlightworthy organises their books by lists. How about Fractured Novels that Mirror the Uncertainty of Everyday Life? You can search for books about certain topics, or just browse intrepidly.

Finally, at peroozal authors recommend their favourite titles, working on the premise that if you love what someone writes, there’s a good chance you’ll like at least some of what they read.

Give one of these a whirl and let me know what rockets to the top of your reading list.