I wasn’t sure how to name this post so it makes sense, but I’ll explain more here.
I say I’m a kinda new reader because, technically, I have read, it’s just that most were stuff I hated and was forced to in school. The books I’ve read for fun have mostly been as a kid, because afterwards I got turned away by the obligativity of reading what are considered classics in my country.
However, since late last year, I’ve slowly been getting back into reading. For fun this time. I might get criticized for this, but the few I read since then, I downloaded off of the internet. But now I’d like to actually buy them.
With that being said, however, how do you all decide what books to buy? Given that I’m new to (getting back into) reading, I don’t exactly have favorite authors that I could make an educated guess that I’ll enjoy. Buying a book is a gamble, cause the summary could sound interesting, but the story itself could still be bad. This hasn’t been an issue so far, because there’s no risk of not enjoying a book if I pirated it. All I would lose would be the time spent on reading however much before I drop it.
I feel like I will end up spending a lot of time pondering about whether I really want X book and reading or watching spoiler-free reviews. How do you decide what to buy? And how often do you end up not finishing a book you’ve bought?
(An extra question that’s of less importance right now, so feel free to not answer to this next one, unless you want to, but paperback or hardcover? What I’m hearing is paperback being more portable, cheaper and comfortable, while hardcover looks way better. Most of the time I’d be reading at home anyway, so portability doesn’t matter as much for me. But I would very much like it to be comfortable to hold and all and look great on shelves, so I’m undecided, heh).
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Lots of good advice here, I’ll add one that I haven’t seen ;
I go to a good book shop and say I’m into polars, so I just go to the polar section and take books that I feel might be interesting, there is a lot of information just by looking of the outside of a book (large book with gold title vs thin dense monichromatic…), then I open it some 10-20 pages in (the first page is often extra handcrafted to draw you in and might just be a cheap trick, or not of course) and read half a page. Usually the style just puts you off or makes you want more right away.
Another is just ask for recommendations, I bet we can find you a couple of good ones if you are interested :-)
Even in bad (large chain) bookstores they often hire nerds. I always ask what’s good and 60% of the time there’s an excited response from a first year lit student. It’s how I read Grass by SS Tepper; very happy for that recommendation. But most of the time I read the first page, random page, and know it’s not for me.
Another is just ask for recommendations, I bet we can find you a couple of good ones if you are interested :-)
You mean asking here? Sure, I’d be down if that’s the case.
I’m not gonna talk about what books I enjoyed as a kid, cause I don’t remember all of them, nor why I enjoyed them. It’s been years. Besides, my tastes have changed, I’m sure. So I’ll only mention what I’ve read since late 2023, when I started to get back into it.
The ones I’ve completed are:
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“This Is How You Lose the Time War” by Max Gladstone andAmal El-Mohtar. Was good, maybe a bit confusing at times. I tend to like time travel stories in anime or TV shows, which is why I started this one. I gave it a 3 star rating, although I’m not sure how people interpret each star since I’m new, so it’s entirely possible that a 3 star for me is better or worse than something you’d also give 3 stars.
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“We Are Okay” by Nina LaCour. It’s currently sitting at a 4 star for me, but it’s more like a 3.75, but the site I’m using only has full and half stars, so I can’t go in between 3.5 and 4.
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“The Cat Who Saved Books” by Sosuke Natsukawa. This had a bit more on an anime-vibe to it, which is a good thing as far as I’m concerned, as a big anime fan. Or maybe it just felt like it did because the characters’ names were in Japanese and the story took place in Japan, since Sosuke Natsukawa is Japanese himself. 3.5 from me.
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“Warm Up” by V.E. Schwab. This is part of a series, it’s a short prologue of sorts (less than 20 pages, from what I recall) and I’m theoretically reading the first book of the main series, but I haven’t read that in a while. I’ll probably get back to it some time soon, but it didn’t grab me as well as the three books above did. As for Warm Up specifically, I haven’t rated it, what with it being so short. I didn’t know how to accurately judge something with so few pages.
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“The Last Murder at the End of the World” by Stuart Turton. My absolute favorite so far (although there’s not that many in total to begin with). I loved it so much! 5 stars. Ironically took me the longest to read out of these, but it was because I wasn’t always in a reading mood, not for any other reason. I already intend on reading “The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle” sometime soon, cause it’s by the same author.
The one I dropped is:
- “Hurricane Heels” by Isabel Yap. There were some magical girl anime that I really liked, which is how I ended up picking this book, as I searched for magical-girl-like books. I didn’t end up liking it too much tbh, so I never finished it. Only read 12%, to be fair.
Currently reading:
I think I may have made a mistake by starting too many books, haha. I have these as “reading”:
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“Coraline” by Neil Gaiman. Gaiman has written some stories in Doctor Who, which is how I came to know about him. 24% so far, but haven’t read it in a while.
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“Vicious” by V.E Schwab. The first real book in the series I mentioned above when talking about “Warm Up”.
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“Fangirl” by Rainbow Rowell. This I’ve read more of recently. Yesterday, actually. 21%.
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“Pew” by Catherine Lacey. Also read more recently, as opposed to Coraline and Vicious. Two days ago was when I last read from this. 31%.
Anime, Cartoons and TV Shows:
As for my tastes in non-book fiction, I’ll mention some of my favorites here, in case you (or someone else finding this) knows about them. There’s not a lot of books I’ve read all the way through yet, so some non-book favorites could be helpful in recommending me books, I feel.
Some of my favorite anime in no particular order: Non Non Biyori, Steins;Gate, Vinland Saga, Bocchi the Rock.
Some of my favorite TV shows in no particular order: Doctor Who, 12 Monkeys (for the latter, I’m specifically referring to the TV show. I haven’t seen the movie that its premise is loosely based off of, because they’re not really related beside a common base concept). Just these 2 really, I mainly watch anime.
Some of my favorite cartoons: Gravity Falls, Avatar: The Last Airbender.
Hopy someone can help you out, I haven’t read one single book you mention 😑.
So my advice is Catch 22 by Joseph Heller.
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I consider physical books to be merch, so I buy them when I already like the story, or want to support the author specifically. Otherwise, when I want to try a new book, I go to the library
Unless you have money to throw away why not continue to pirate stuff whilst you figure out what you do and don’t like.
I, like you, didn’t get into books until much later on. I found something I liked (for me it started with Lovecraft) and then just explored all of his books before then looking for stuff that was within that similar vein.
I also used other types of media to inform what kinds of things I might like (predominantly video games) which lead me off on to other tangents.
I think this gave me a good basis of what I enjoyed from the stories and writing themselves and then from there I went on to trying other things, usually randomly based purely on a title or blurb and just giving things a go. If I didn’t enjoy something after a few hours then I’d just drop it and move on. When I found something I like I’d usually just binge that author.
You can always go to a library and borrow some stuff to get an idea of the form factor you like in terms of your last question. I’m an audio book only kind of person so have no input really in terms of that.
It’s not that I have money to throw away, but rather that I spend a lot of time in front of screens. Anime and games can’t be watched/played without a screen, but books can be read. Since I already look at screens so much, I would want to not do the same when reading if I don’t have to.
That is fair enough, to be clear I didn’t mean that buying books in itself was throwing money away, more if you are unsure what you like from books and end up buying a lot of stuff you just don’t like it is a waste.
I think you should get your library on whilst you figure out your tastes a bit more. It’ll save you money as well as getting you away from screens as you want. Win / win.
to be clear I didn’t mean that buying books in itself was throwing money away, more if you are unsure what you like from books and end up buying a lot of stuff you just don’t like it is a waste.
Yeah, don’t worry, I didn’t assume anything negative from that. I just wanted to clarify why exactly I don’t just keep on pirating them.
Use the library. Find stuff you like. In the US, Libby and Hoopla are great digital borrowing options a lot of libraries support. I tend to actually buy fiction when it’s an author/series I want day one. (Mostly audiobooks, some ebooks). For nonfiction, I do the best research I can to determine that it’s evidence backed and well respected by other authors in the field (generally psychology-ish).
In terms of the format, I mostly don’t do physical books. I can’t carry 1000 of those in my pocket. I mostly get a handful of favorites to have on a shelf and maybe talk someone else into reading, but I’ll still read on my ereader or audio. My preference is audiobook because I have a lot of time where I can listen while doing other stuff. I do get a fair number of ebooks as well, but a lot of those are programming books because audio doesn’t work for code and especially because there are a lot of awesome bundles through Humble Bundle for them.
If I like a book from a library I buy it. Otherwise I pirate it online and read it to the point where I’m sure I like it
Are used book stores an option? Libraries are great, but most of my discoveries of new authors and genres has been by hanging out for hours in an old second-hand book store, preferably the kind with a cluttered shelves, narrow aisles, and a cat or two sleeping here and there. I hope you can experience that kind of book-exploration.
My best advice is - never ask internet users for recommendations. When asked what their favourite book is, 99% of people will give you pretentious, wanky answers and start reeling off coffee-table-I’m-so-deep classic books that they only read because they asked internet users for their favourite books.
The best book I’ve ever read is The One Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out Of A Window And Disappeared
Comedy, adventure, action, science, family; you name it, it’s got it
My thing is sci-fi and fantasy, so my suggestion is this: look up a series that looks interesting. Then go to the library and check out the very first one of the series. If you read it, and you like it, that’s how you know what to buy.
