Books, Readers and Beyond: #52 What to Read

I took a glance at all of the websites that assist in the never ending quest to finding the perfect book.

1. At first glance Novelist Plus seems easy enough. All that is required is just the name of the book, or of the author, and from there you can get results listing other books or authors similar to the mentioned book. For this experiment I typed James Byron Huggins, and the list of author-related books was very limited; only one book to be exact.

What Should I Read Next? -This one website was the one I found the most useful. The list of books mentioned is much greater. I once again typed James Byron Huggins and received a lot more results, nine more than using the previous website.

Fiction_L Booklists - Unlike the other webistes, this one did not seem as user friendly. This website offers lists of many genres and authors, but it takes a while to get a grasp of the whole process. But the lists are unique and provide a glimpse at possible new titles.

2. Using Novelist Plus, I found two books for a fourth grade girl interested in animals. The books are: "Animal Talk" by Etta Kaner (9781550749823) and "How Animals Saved The People" as retold by J.J. Reneaux (9780688162535). And while she likes animals, her thirteen year old brother likes ghost books. Using this information, I recommend: "Something upstairs: a tale of ghosts" by Avi (9780531057827) and "The graveyard book" by Neil Gaiman (9780060530921).

3. A customer walks in and says that he has read everything ever written by Dean Koontz, so using the website What Should I Read Next? I recommend F. Paul Wilson, Erica Spindler, and Phil Rickman. Using Novelist Plus I would recommend Stephen King, Clive Barker, and Ted Dekker.

4. A customer has read Alanna: the First Adventure by Tamora Pierce and she would like to read the other books in the series in order. Using Novelist Plus, the series is called Song of the Lioness, and the order is as follows: In the hand of the goddess, The woman who rides like a man, and Lioness rampant.

Overall, this exercise felt more like homework than anything else. My only problem with this exercise was constantly going back and forth looking for books that fit the pattern of other people rather than me. I don't deal with customers, so these types of scenarios don't really apply to me. But I will use the websites to look for books that might interest me based on my list of previously read material.