LOOKING FOR READING IDEAS?
Are you looking for a good book or deciding what to read next? Wondering where can you find more information? There are a wide variety of resources available for finding your next book, some of which are listed below. Remember that you can always ask the library staff for their advice! For reading ideas for children, please click here; for teens, click here
READING RECOMMENDATIONS
NOVELIST Plus (enter your full library card number):
Novelist provides a variety of readers' advisory services online. You can search by author, title, plot, or series name. There are read-alike recommendations and lists of genre fiction, book discussion guides, and awards lists. Novelist is a complete readers' advisory resource in one convenient place. Now includes nonfiction in Novelist Plus!
Gleason Readers: Our forum for sharing reviews and recommendations of books, CDs, and films.
LibraryThing: Catalog your personal library, or see what people with similar taste to yours also like. Go to www.librarything.com/suggest for suggestions or unsuggestions (what books are LEAST likely to be found on the same user's bookshelf).
Goodreads: Social networking for readers — keep track of what you've read and what you'd like to read, see what your friends are reading, and get recommendations from others.
Bookspot: Lists, lists, lists — including non-fiction, awards, children's, poetry, and others. Also "Author Spotlight", "Genre Spotlight", and hundreds of links to other literary sites.
Morton Grove Public Library's Webrary:
Wide selection of links to sites of interest to book lovers and those looking for their next reading experience.
New York Times Book Review: Reviews, bestseller lists, and readers' opinion from the premier resource for literary information.
100 best non-fiction books: Worth a look for its unusual selection of titles. Alternatives to reading fiction.
Overbooked: This busy site offers an abundance of information, including starred reviews and lists of recommended genre fiction. An excellent readers' advisory resource.
Reading Group Choices: Thoughtfully selected book choices for book groups, but they work equally well for anyone seeking a good book. Search by genre or theme — biography, cultural and world issues, identity, etc. Reviews each book and offers discussion questions.
Reading Group Guides: More resources for book groups, with over 2600 discussion guides, tips for coming up with your own discussion questions, suggestions and resources for book groups, and more (including a highlighted list of what's new in paperback).
Science Fiction and Fantasy Book List: A comprehensive bibliography of science fiction and fantasy authors and their work.
Who Reads What: A celebrity reading list compiled annually by the Gardiner Public Library in Maine. More interesting and more information than might be expected.
EBOOKS AND DOWNLOADABLE AUDIO
ebooks
Overdrive:
A growing collection of ebooks for all ages, including best-sellers, classics, how-to, travel, and more. Books can be downloaded and transferred to PCs and Macs, ereaders, iPads, smartphones, and other devices.
Now available for Amazon Kindle.
Safari Tech Books Online: Safari Books Online's on-demand digital library provides access to over 9,800 technology, creative and business books and videos from leading publishers. Safari books are not downloadable to portable devices.
Project Gutenberg:
Digitized classics (out of copyright) can be downloaded and transferred freely. Includes some audiobooks as well as ebooks.
ManyBooks:
Classic ebooks, downloadable for free in a wide variety of formats, including Kindle, PDF, ePub, and plain text
Baen Free Library
Science fiction and fantasy titles from Baen Books, with free downloads in multiple formats. Authors include Eric Flint, Lois McMaster Bujold, Mercedes Lackey, Larry Niven, and more.
Google Books:
Search the full text of millions of book, and browse some or all of the content. (As of December 2010, Google also offers an online bookstore.)
NetGalley: Professional readers-reviewers, media, bloggers, journalists, librarians, booksellers and educators-can all use NetGalley for FREE to read and request galleys they want to review. Publishers share advance galleys of upcoming books for professional readers - free registration required.
ebooks for children
TumbleBooks Library:
Animated, talking picture books and easy readers. Includes fiction and nonfiction, with favorite authors like Molly Bang and Robert Munsch, plus books in Spanish, French, Chinese, Russian, and Italian.
International Children's Digital Library:
"The ICDL Foundation's goal is to build a collection of books that represents outstanding historical and contemporary books from throughout the world." Read picture books from around the world; search by language, age range, or subject. Includes award winners and more.
Looking for more ebooks? Try this list of links from Stockton-San Joaquin County Public Library.
Downloadable audio
Overdrive:
Gleason Public Library offers downloadable audiobooks through the Merrimack Valley Library Consortium. Audio can be downloaded and transferred to PCs, Macs, MP3 players, and other digital devices like iPhones and Blackberries, or burned to CD.
LibriVox:
Public domain audiobooks, recorded by volunteers.
Audio Archive at the Internet Archive:
The Archive is best-known for archiving prior versions of websites (plug in an address and see the page's history.) But their Community Audio section includes audiobooks and poetry, live music performances, old time radio shows, and more, all free.
The Poetry Archive:
Recordings of classic and contemporary poets.
Audible:
A paid subscription-based audiobooks service.
