Given that there are a zillion books to read, most by authors that we already know, and if we are long time readers, we have a vast supply or authors to choose from, still, for me, most of the books I read in any given year are not people that I am familiar. For example, I am currently reading Will and Testament by Norwegian writer Vigdis Hjorth (not only is she unfamiliar but I can’t even pronounce her name), and I can’t remember exactly how she ended up in the queue of books that I want to read, because there are so many different sources from which I find my interest piqued to what I will read next. Hardly any of the books I read come from recommendations by my friends. So I am wondering how most people expand their writing experience by reading people you have never heard of before or people from different cultures. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, written by Swedish writer Stieg Larsson, and the other books of the trilogy, took off like crazy. Did people start reading more Swedish mysteries? I certainly did. Jo Nesbo another Norwegian writer, and though his detective Harry Hole investigates some grizzly crimes, he is such an eloquent writer, the books are hard to put down. I could go on and on, and have probably gone on longer than I wanted to, but I am genuinely curious where people find the next book to read other than through friends.
Hi @Kassapa - Not to throw too much of a plug in here, but BookBrowse is still my #1 source for discovering new books, even after something like 20 years. There are the books I select to review, of course, but I almost always end up with another two or three on my TBR when a new issue of the BookBrowse Review comes out.
I’m also on a number of mailing lists that highlight “books to watch” or “most anticipated,” such as Publishers Weekly and the New York Times. And I pay attention to award winners as well.
Finally, there’s the group here. I get a huge number of reading ideas from Forum participants and haven’t hit a clunker yet. I never would have picked up On the Calculation of Volume without @Anne_Glasgow’s recommendation, or The Correspondent without a ton of folks here talking about how great it is.
I don’t have many reading friends and I’m not in a book club, so I don’t really experience recommendations by word-of-mouth.
i am a huge fan of the Stieg Larsson series, which led me to Jo Nesbo, although I haven’t a lot of his works, I do like them. I am blessed to have a lot of close friends who also love reading so we do pass around a lot books between us all. But I also just happen to stumble across things that perk my interest. Stephen Graham Jones has become one of my very favorite authors due to the title of “The Only Good Indians”. I am not a fan of horror genre, either in books or movies, but he writes such heroic, flawed, beautiful characters that I have fallen in love with everything he writes, The title caught my eye and he has trapped me in his web ever since, So I highly recommend stepping outside one’s comfort zone every once in a while. Magic awaits!