Expert Advice: Websites for the Book Lover

I have one huge addiction in life - books. In fact, as I write this, I am peering through two large piles of books, praying that they don’t fall over and hit my girlfriend on the head. I buy books faster than I can read them, which is partly due to being enticed by the following websites ……

Fantastic Fiction - my all-time best book website and one which I check at least twice a week. The site claims to have information on 10,000 authors and 200,000 books. The webmaster regularly updates the website with upcoming new releases, sometimes as much as up to 6 months in the future. The site also has author profiles, lists of previously published books by a particular author, links to authors websites and much more. The site is also split up into different categories so if you have a favourite genre, you can head straight there and cut out all the other stuff.

Mostly Fiction -another excellent site, although I am sometimes not impressed with some of the books they review. Mostly Fiction offers in-depth book reviews and a newsletter service to be notified of new books. Also a very easy site to navigate which I appreciate.

Librarything - I like the concept but I am not sure if I want to pay for it. With Librarything, you can catalogue your entire book collection, find like-minded readers, share book recommendations and much more. Good if you like to show off your collection to others and also good if you like to network with other readers.

Mysterynet - a site for lovers of mystery and detective stories. Since I am a big Sherlock Holmes fan, I visit this site quite often. Read about the big mystery authors such as Edgar Allan Poe and Agatha Christie. Read mystery stories on the site and solve a mystery puzzle or two. There’s also a large community of mystery fans whom you can chat with on what you’re reading at the moment.

Banned Books - an interesting webpage on books that have been banned or are still in hot dispute. Seeing webpages like this makes me get on the internet to find copies so I can defy the kill-joys of the world. This is a page to circulate around your book-loving friends.

Neglected Books - another interesting webpage which profiles books which have been “forgotten” and should be remembered again (in the opinion of the webmaster). It makes you wonder how many old books are eventually forgotten about as new ones come out and the author dies.

What Should I Read Next? - this is one for readers who have no idea what to read next (not a problem that I have!). If you enter a title and / or an author, the database will suggest similar books. But who would want to read a book similar to the one that has just been read? Still, I’m sure some people will find this site useful.

Stop, You’re Killing Me! - another book website for lovers of mystery, crime, thriller, spy, and suspense books. Contains links for 2,200 authors and 26,000 book titles.

Authors Track - I wish they would extend this website to Europe but at the moment, it is for the USA only. The site lets you know when and where authors are touring on book signings and lectures. You can then go along and get your book signed or simply meet the author in person.

Project Gutenberg Top 100 e-books - I am slightly biased with this one as I do voluntary work for Project Gutenberg but PG is still indisputedly the best place on the internet to get a digital copy of a copyright-expired book. You can also download a book to see what it is like before committing to buying a print copy which could be expensive. But PG only digitizes copyright-expired books so don’t expect any Harry Potter or Stephen King. Come back in about 120 years for that.

Shakespeare on Google Books - I may have previously criticised some of Google’s services but there’s also a lot they do fantastically well. One of my favourite Google pages is the complete works of William Shakespeare. Search within the scanned pages for famous quotes and read the works of the greatest playwright that ever lived.

Are there any other book websites that you find interesting? Please tell me about them in the comments so I can buy even more books! You will have my girlfriend’s undying hatred as she trips over the latest stack to come from the Amazon warehouse!

Filed Under: Cool Websites ¦ Lists of tools
Tags: books, community, Interesting, reading, recommendation engine