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Ask HN: How do you pick your next book?
I'm working on a new personal project which I'm super excited about. The landing page is here: www.booknshelf.com. I'd love to get some initial feedback from awesome HN community on how you generally find your next book to read, whether you care about what other people read, or you care only about reviews, etc. Thanks so much!
- onion2k 10y agoMy fiancée and I give each other a book every month. She picks things she thinks I might like or that she thinks I ought to read (in a good way). It's a brilliant way of discovering new things to read that I'd never have even heard of otherwise. Plus, over the four years we've been doing our little gift exchanges we've created a fantastic library that charts our relationship. If we make it to 50 years together it'll be something to behold. Assuming books are even a thing then.
- veddox 10y agoI love that system! :-) > Assuming books are even a thing then Well, they have been "a thing" for close on 2000 years, so I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for them to disappear in the next 50 ;-)
- paulrpotts 10y agoWell, right off the bat, having _only_ a sign-up button with no indication of what the site will do is kind of a turn-off. No tour, no "about," nothing. I get several hundred spam messages a week and so I'm not super-keen to put my e-mail address into another web site that I know so little about.
- Jugurtha 10y agoOP was asking for feedback about the process of choosing books, not about the website. You might be interested in https://mytemp.email https://mytemp.email. It'll issue you a temporary email address without you filling any form. The email address is accessible by a URI and is perishable (dies if not accessed within 24 hours).
- veddox 10y agoI'd second that, I'd like to know what the site actually does...
- cwt 10y agoMost books I read come from personal recommendations, a friend tells me they liked a book and think I will like it. If I read it and like it I might read others from the author. Free books (and on sale <$1.00) are also an incentive and have more often than not resulted in me buying other books from the author. Serendipity in book stores - not very frequent because bookstores are not close to me. I recently bought 3 books from various bookstores while looking at what was available. One I had been meaning to read for years the other two were by authors I knew of but had never read. Random Internet reference, I read Stanger in a Strange Land because of the SO answer "You don't grok vi" - I wanted to grok grok. Travel inspired, I read some Hemingway because I was going to Spain. edit: Online reviews are like social media comments, bring some popcorn. If I want to read criticism about a book, it will be from a more reputable source. But, that is not to say I won't read a book with bad reviews from a more reputable source. Their negative spin might make me more curious.
- zer00eyz 10y agoI do this same thing, but have an interesting story as to how I picked up this habit. In a diffrent age I lived in baltimore, and every day on my way to work would walk past the same homeless (or at least I thought) man sitting behind the church, who would be reading and have a pile of books next to him. One day I passed him and he was exchanging a book with a woman. My curiosity got the better of me and I watched the exchange and listened to the conversation. Apparently, he lived in the church, in trade for cleaning, with his basic needs provided for he had taken up to forming his own little book exchange for tips. After talking with him for a bit, about what I read and what I liked he promised me a book for the next day... Over the course of the next year, I read some rather interesting things that I NEVER would have picked out on my own, and was introduced to them in such a way as to make them much more palatable. As an example I had never been a fan of military history, after throwing a pair of military scifi books my way i got something more factual and loved it. Because of him, I basically read anything any one gives me... fiction, non fiction, domain specific stuff.
- wmoser 10y agoThe last few books I've read I heard interviews with the author or discussed on NPR. Everything else is technical manuals or books on computer things I am trying to learn. Those are normally what I pick up from OReilly or No Starch or Humble Bundle when they're on sale and the topic interests me. Also tech manuals for work on various prices of equipment.
- echolima 10y agoI write a lot of fiction, and co-host a writing/tech podcast, so a lot of recommendations come from other writers, as well as topics in the podcast. I really dig when someone is so passionate about a book they want to share with a stranger. Goodreads as well. I see a LOT of book spam on Twitter and Facebook, none of which I have ever bought. Free download maybe, but no purchase.
- Jugurtha 10y agoI use a weighted citation system. Someone mentions a person or a book, I will take a look at it. I'll then learn about the person, connections, books, etc. Wash, rinse, repeat.
- veddox 10y agoFirst of all: kudos for starting a project based on books! (I love books and anything to do with them, we need more of this...) How I find my next book to read? Mostly chance. For example, I regularly visit local bookshops for a browse, and if anything especially catches my fancy, I'll buy it (usually after having read the first quarter of it in the shop). As a student my budget for "luxury goods" isn't phenomenally large, but I do make a point of buying one or two new books a month. Buying a book after a friend's recommendation is rare but not unheard-of. Sometimes reading a review (of the professional, printed in a published magazine type - NOT online user reviews) will also tempt me to buy. Hope that helps :-)
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- selmat 10y agoI mainly read books focused on certain topic. Every time it is different domain from varios fields like sociology, economics, leadership through programming, electronics, mechanics and architecture to weather and nanotechnology. Books are selected per current area of interest. As source of recommendation i use current and past edition plan from scientific publishers. I dont know anoyone around me who read these kind of books so i dont get recommendations from friends of mine. From non-scientific literature i read books based on recommendation from HN or other forums like quora. It also depends on my mood. Always i read something because i wanna learn something new, get fresh insight or different point of view. Side effect is that i can join almost every discussion on various topics. Sometime i also decide if i will read it or not based on future usage of obtained information.