How to choose your next book: reviews, samples and recommendation sources

TUREFF• •0

Finishing a good book often leads straight to a small problem: what next? With so much being published, the challenge is less finding something to read than finding something you will actually enjoy. A little method saves you from abandoning book after book, or rereading the same few authors forever.

Start with what you liked and why

Before you look anywhere, think about the last few books you loved. Try to name what you enjoyed:

Story: a twisty plot, a slow-burning romance, a quest
Character: people you felt you knew, or a narrator with a strong voice
Setting: a particular place, period or invented world
Style: spare and fast, or rich and descriptive
Feeling: comforting, unsettling, funny, moving

This helps you see that a book you loved was perhaps not about Victorian London but about an unreliable narrator, which opens up far more options.

Read a sample first

The single most reliable test is to read a little of the book itself.

In a bookshop or library, read the first page or two, then open somewhere in the middle and read a page. The opening is polished for impact; the middle shows what most of the book is like.
Online, most ebook shops let you download a free sample or read the first pages in the browser.
Ask yourself: do I want to keep going? Is the voice one I can live with for three hundred pages?

Using reviews well

Reviews can help, but read them with some care.

Professional reviews in newspapers and literary magazines tend to discuss what a book is trying to do and whether it succeeds. They are useful for literary fiction and serious non-fiction.
Reader reviews on retailer and social reading sites are more varied. Look past the star rating and read a mix of positive and negative reviews. A negative review that complains about exactly the thing you enjoy, such as too much description, is effectively a recommendation.
Watch for spoilers, especially for mysteries and thrillers.
Be wary of extremes. Lots of very short, very similar reviews can be a sign that something is not genuine.

Recommendation sources

Librarians and booksellers. Telling one a couple of books you loved is one of the quickest ways to get a good suggestion. Many independent bookshops have staff picks with handwritten notes.
Prize lists. Longlists and shortlists for literary and genre prizes are a curated starting point, and often include lesser-known books that you might never otherwise come across.
Authors you like. Writers often recommend other books in interviews, newsletters and acknowledgements, and their influences can lead you somewhere new.
Friends with similar taste. Notice whose recommendations have worked before, and ask them again.
Social media and video communities. These can be energetic and fun, but popularity often snowballs around the same few titles. Use them for ideas, then check a sample.
Read-alike lists. Many libraries publish lists of books similar to popular titles.

Try a few strategies to break a rut

Follow a thread. If a novel mentioned a historical event, read a history of it. If you loved a translated book, try another from the same country or translator.
Alternate. Some readers swap between something light and something demanding, or fiction and non-fiction.
Try a short book in an unfamiliar genre before committing to a long one.
Keep a want-to-read list so that next time you finish a book, you have options ready.

Permission to stop

No method is perfect. If you are fifty pages in and dreading picking it up, it is fine to put it down. Time spent on a book you do not enjoy is time not spent on one you might love. How do you usually choose your next book, and what was your best recent find? Share it in the comments.