We all know that
ONTD Doesn't Read™ (and I swear, some of y'all don't even read the post
titles anymore lol) but
we also love a good book post, right? Well here's something for both crowds (or is it only one crowd and we actually DO read, just not on ONTD? I digress): a list of
8 books whose purpose is to recommend other books to you.
Good for: people who don't read much but would like to start; people who are overwhelmed by the number of books in the world; people who go to book clubs; people who can't spend hours on Goodreads looking for something that looks appealing; people who have a zillion "to read" books but never know what to read next.
#1 - The Novel Cure (Ella Berthoud and Susan Elderkin)![Image and video hosting by TinyPic]()
This is a book of "literary remedies" and it is seriously the best thing ever. Basically, it recommends books to cure or ease your problems, be they physical (from insomnia to haemorrhoids, including not having enough orgasms), emotional (being judgemental, procrastination, low self esteem, etc) or even monetary (there isn't a student loans entry, but you can check out being broke or unemployment). There are also cures for "reading ailments", like tendency to skim, being put off by tomes, inability to give up halfway through, etc. And of course there are thematic lists like the ten best break-up novels and the ten best novels to read in hospital. All in all this is a real gem of a book, written in a nice easy style and I've gotten some good recs from it (like Carter Beats the Devil for a long airplane journey).#2 The Book Lovers' Companion (Various authors; foreword by Lionel Shriver)![Image and video hosting by TinyPic]()
I have
very little time to squander on bad books, and too many books I want to read during my lifetime. So, it helps to have a guide like this one.
It's got something like a hundred highly recommended titles (both classics and popular fiction), each with a non-spoiler synopsis, date of publication, book length, discussion points (for book clubs), background info, what the critics said and suggested companion books. It is seriously AWESOME. I can't wait to read every single one of the books recommended. Oh, and of course there are some thematic lists, like Top 10 World Classics; Top 10 Gay Reads; Top 10 Quick Reads and Top 10 Sci-Fi Books.
#3-5 Book Lust; More Book Lust; Book Lust to Go (Nancy Pearl)![Image and video hosting by TinyPic]()
Think of Nancy Pearl as your friendly librarian (she is, in fact, a librarian), who you'd come up to for recommendations on, say, books about women's friendships, action heroines, ghost stories, Cold War spy fiction or books about Asian American experiences. Think of a topic, any topic, and she can recommend books about it for you. Of course, since there are like a zillion topics in her books, she doesn't spend too much time talking about
each recommended book, but they are still handy guides that can be used to their full advantage when combined with Goodreads. Fair warning, she is American and even though the books feature several topics on fiction and non-fiction from and about Africa, the Balkans, Cuba, etc, she does give each American state a section (and there aren't exactly many non-Americans who are just
dying to read everything about Nebraska) and I think she is very deficient in Latin American fiction (she picked Jorge Amado and Paulo Coelho as the Brazilian representatives, yikes).
#6 Read This Next (Howard Mittelmark, Sandra Newman)![Image and video hosting by TinyPic]()
This one is
kind of like The Book Lovers' Companion in that it focuses on not-so-many books (compared to the "1001" lists) but highly recommended, and talks about them in some depth. However, the approaches are completely different.
This one is a lighter, more humourous book, with playful commentary from the authors. The humour won't be to everyone's tastes, of course, but
if you don't want to feel like you're getting reading assignments from a college professor this just might be the book for you. The titles are divided in sections like Love; Memoir; Politics; Humour; War; Work and Money; Death; etc, and each book rec comes with a little synopsis, the historical context in which the book was written, some anecdotes, a bit of background on the author, funny discussion questions for book clubs, etc.
#7 1001 Books for Every Mood (Hallie Ephron)![Image and video hosting by TinyPic]()
Ok let's say that the way you look for books to read isn't by genre, or subject, or author, or because it's popular or critically acclaimed.
Maybe you just want something for a good cry, or you want to feel afraid, or you want to indulge in a revenge fantasy. Maybe you're just in the mood for a good laugh. Well, this is the book for you. In addition to the moods there are also symbols that indicate if the title in question is a quick read, provocative, influential, humourous, etc. Pretty nifty, eh?
#8 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (Peter Boxall)![Image and video hosting by TinyPic]()
Ok, this is just the kind of book that gives me
so. much. anxiety. Like,
I gotta read 1001 books before I die??? There's not enough time!!! And at the same time, (Locke voice): don't tell me what I must do! But it couldn't be missing from this list, right? Anyway I have a friend with a bike who tells me that a list of 1001
anything has got to have a lot of filler crap. He's probably right. But there
are a lot of good recs here. You'll find that plenty of the books recommended by the books above
can be found in this volume. So, you know,
don't pressure yourself: skim it and add the stuff that looks appealing to your to-read list; ignore the weird obscure self-indulgent crap. Or cross-reference it with another title from this list.
Source: me, with a little help from Goodreads
Book post! Where do you get your book recs from (other than ONTD of course)?
