How to find new books
May 7, 2010 8:23 PM Subscribe
How do you find new books to read? I just finished another book, and need advice about the best way to find others I'll enjoy reading.
I am genuinely fascinated with the way that my friends find new books to read. I have one friend, for example, that will read anything if he likes its cover/dust jacket. Since Metafilter is a highly literate community, I wanted to ask about the way that you find new books to read. I seem to have a lot more trouble finding new books to read than a *sane* person.
It seems like my satisfaction with finishing a book is often tempered with the dissatisfaction at having to find another book to read.
I've tried working through bestseller lists, Amazon Listmania, looking through Shelfari (though admittedly never really knowing how to use it), and a lot of other ways. I know that finding books should theoretically be as simple as deciding on a topic that interests me, then finding the best book on that subject, but things never seem to work out that way.
Walk me through this: You've finished a book and want some new reading material. Now what?
I am genuinely fascinated with the way that my friends find new books to read. I have one friend, for example, that will read anything if he likes its cover/dust jacket. Since Metafilter is a highly literate community, I wanted to ask about the way that you find new books to read. I seem to have a lot more trouble finding new books to read than a *sane* person.
It seems like my satisfaction with finishing a book is often tempered with the dissatisfaction at having to find another book to read.
I've tried working through bestseller lists, Amazon Listmania, looking through Shelfari (though admittedly never really knowing how to use it), and a lot of other ways. I know that finding books should theoretically be as simple as deciding on a topic that interests me, then finding the best book on that subject, but things never seem to work out that way.
Walk me through this: You've finished a book and want some new reading material. Now what?
I wander through:
the book store
the NYT Book Review
my friend's recommendations.
posted by caddis at 8:28 PM on May 7, 2010
the book store
the NYT Book Review
my friend's recommendations.
posted by caddis at 8:28 PM on May 7, 2010
My first line of attack is to see if the author I've enjoyed has written anything else. If not, I usually do a book store wander to find new reading material - I decide what to read based on the cover + the "blurb" + the first few pages. Many of my favourites (like the "Maisie Dobbs" mysteries) have been completely random discoveries.
posted by purlgurly at 8:34 PM on May 7, 2010
posted by purlgurly at 8:34 PM on May 7, 2010
Go to a book store and wander around until something catches your eye. Doesn't matter how. Then check that book out. If it's good then read it. If it's not then keep looking.
posted by theichibun at 8:34 PM on May 7, 2010
posted by theichibun at 8:34 PM on May 7, 2010
One way this comes naturally is by staying up on the books section of your local newspaper—or even better, something like the New York Times Book Review or a literary magazine like the New Yorker. I work in a library and I'm also an academic by nature, so it's not like I could avoid finding interesting things to read if I tried. Still, most of the reading materials I bring home are:
- Additional books by authors I've already read and enjoyed. If I really like a writer, I tend to hunt down everything of theirs I can find. With someone like Peter Ackroyd this can be deadly.
- Books I've seen reviewed or mentioned in the NYT.
- Books cited in the footnotes to something else I was reading. This is more pertinent for academic library-rat types like me, but really, almost every book draws on other literature. Even J.K. Rowling quotes Aeschylus, right?
The literate folks of Ask Metafilter also do a pretty good job of recommending stuff, as it turns out.
posted by cirripede at 8:37 PM on May 7, 2010
- Additional books by authors I've already read and enjoyed. If I really like a writer, I tend to hunt down everything of theirs I can find. With someone like Peter Ackroyd this can be deadly.
- Books I've seen reviewed or mentioned in the NYT.
- Books cited in the footnotes to something else I was reading. This is more pertinent for academic library-rat types like me, but really, almost every book draws on other literature. Even J.K. Rowling quotes Aeschylus, right?
The literate folks of Ask Metafilter also do a pretty good job of recommending stuff, as it turns out.
posted by cirripede at 8:37 PM on May 7, 2010
The last time I found myself with a lot of time for reading, I started going through the Pulitzer Prize list. It's hard to go wrong.
posted by netbros at 8:38 PM on May 7, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by netbros at 8:38 PM on May 7, 2010 [1 favorite]
I'm with purlgurly - if I like an author I'll search up the rest of their work. Otherwise I'll wander the stacks in a bookstore browsing books. If I'm looking for a certain type of book in particular about something I know little about - e.g. language learning, art - I might search reviews online first, but mostly I just flick through the book and decide for myself.
The thing I keep in mind is that I don't need to look for the best book on a particular subject - if it's not the best, ehh, I can just go back and look for a better one.
posted by Xany at 8:42 PM on May 7, 2010
The thing I keep in mind is that I don't need to look for the best book on a particular subject - if it's not the best, ehh, I can just go back and look for a better one.
posted by Xany at 8:42 PM on May 7, 2010
I browse the "new books" shelf at the library, picking up anything that even remotely catches my eye. I figure, it's free and the worst that happens is I tote it home and don't read it. And sometimes I find great stuff that way.
Also, any time I find a book I like I tend to check out all the author's previous work.
posted by Lexica at 8:42 PM on May 7, 2010 [2 favorites]
Also, any time I find a book I like I tend to check out all the author's previous work.
posted by Lexica at 8:42 PM on May 7, 2010 [2 favorites]
There are tons of AskMes for book recommendations. There are probably enough book threads in my favorites to fill up a few years worth of reading lists.
Check out this Metafilter Wiki page that links to helpful AskMe book threads.
posted by alligatorman at 8:52 PM on May 7, 2010 [2 favorites]
Check out this Metafilter Wiki page that links to helpful AskMe book threads.
posted by alligatorman at 8:52 PM on May 7, 2010 [2 favorites]
Based on what people above were saying, I just checked out What Should I Read Next.
I entered Ender's Game, as it's the most recent book I've finished. The answers to this are pretty obvious (Speaker for the Dead is the next book in the series).
It came back with all books with Game in the title, including a gambling book and a dating book.
Searching for C.S. Friedman turns up books where the author has the last name Friedman, including 2 Economics books.
I don't know that I'd suggest it.
I'll recommend LibraryThing.com instead - It takes what you've read, looks at what other people have read along with it, and makes recommendations that aren't just unfiltered Amazon search results.
posted by Rendus at 8:59 PM on May 7, 2010
I entered Ender's Game, as it's the most recent book I've finished. The answers to this are pretty obvious (Speaker for the Dead is the next book in the series).
It came back with all books with Game in the title, including a gambling book and a dating book.
Searching for C.S. Friedman turns up books where the author has the last name Friedman, including 2 Economics books.
I don't know that I'd suggest it.
I'll recommend LibraryThing.com instead - It takes what you've read, looks at what other people have read along with it, and makes recommendations that aren't just unfiltered Amazon search results.
posted by Rendus at 8:59 PM on May 7, 2010
I go by author if I like the material. Once I exhaust that avenue, I look for authors who write similarly.
Ex: I read all of the Dashiell Hammett I could get my hands on, then Raymond Chandler, and now I'm working on Cornell Woolrich. All three good writers, but with differing styles.
Other times, I look for classic or popular writers, (Steinbeck, Ray Bradbury) and work through their writings. Same thing with classic books. I look for Advanced Placement, or Required Reading Lists, and look for titles that jump out at me, or maybe I'd meant to read but never had.
Another method I like is to read books that have been made into movies. As a disclaimer, this is not a paintbrush qualification! Generally speaking, I like reading things before I see them as movies, so I don't ruin the book. True, movies don't usually live up to the writing, but I tend to look for titles where the movies look fantastic, or have been praised for book loyalty, etc...
I also go by recommendation (friends and even amazon or similar recommendations), or just chance sighting of a title or cover that looks interesting. I get stumped, and sometimes don't read everything I pick up, but I like to think that I haven't read everything I have merely because I haven't had the time yet.
My final method is to check out AskMe and see what everyone else is reading. Not a bad starting point, either.
posted by Kimothy at 9:00 PM on May 7, 2010
Ex: I read all of the Dashiell Hammett I could get my hands on, then Raymond Chandler, and now I'm working on Cornell Woolrich. All three good writers, but with differing styles.
Other times, I look for classic or popular writers, (Steinbeck, Ray Bradbury) and work through their writings. Same thing with classic books. I look for Advanced Placement, or Required Reading Lists, and look for titles that jump out at me, or maybe I'd meant to read but never had.
Another method I like is to read books that have been made into movies. As a disclaimer, this is not a paintbrush qualification! Generally speaking, I like reading things before I see them as movies, so I don't ruin the book. True, movies don't usually live up to the writing, but I tend to look for titles where the movies look fantastic, or have been praised for book loyalty, etc...
I also go by recommendation (friends and even amazon or similar recommendations), or just chance sighting of a title or cover that looks interesting. I get stumped, and sometimes don't read everything I pick up, but I like to think that I haven't read everything I have merely because I haven't had the time yet.
My final method is to check out AskMe and see what everyone else is reading. Not a bad starting point, either.
posted by Kimothy at 9:00 PM on May 7, 2010
Anytime I see an interesting book in a review, ad, article, blog post, ask mefi thread, whatever, I add it to a private amazon wishlist. Then as time permits I use that as a shopping list to order books from my library. I try to stagger them so I don't get so many all at once that I don't have time to finish them before they're due, but I do try to get more than one in case one doesn't strike my fancy as much when I get them.
The biggest thing though is always adding books to that "want to read" list. Otherwise I'd never remember all the books I see and want to read during the course of the day.
posted by peanut_mcgillicuty at 9:08 PM on May 7, 2010
The biggest thing though is always adding books to that "want to read" list. Otherwise I'd never remember all the books I see and want to read during the course of the day.
posted by peanut_mcgillicuty at 9:08 PM on May 7, 2010
My first port of call is my TBR pile (to be reads). I browse the shelves at the local charity shops, libraries and remember what recommendations have been made here and on other sites, and buy new books based on those (and what's on sale at amazon, waterstones or persephone). I try not to have too big a pile of TBRs because it's too daunting (there's so many books out there! And sometimes trash is what I need and then I feel as though i'm wasting time) but the TBR pile is static at 40-50 books, and has been for years.
posted by goo at 9:34 PM on May 7, 2010
posted by goo at 9:34 PM on May 7, 2010
I just today ordered two books I heard of from a current AskMe thread. One of the last things I read was Deep Survival, which I'd heard of from somewhere on MeFi (good book.) I've started Lolita for the coming MeFi book club. If you look at my favorites, you'll see lots of AskMe book recommendation threads. So, yeah. MeFi plays a role for me.
posted by Zed at 9:50 PM on May 7, 2010
posted by Zed at 9:50 PM on May 7, 2010
I generally figure any book that's more than 50 or 100 years old and is still in the public consciousness is probably pretty good; bad books tend to be forgotten. So when I need something to read, I often try to think of older, famous books -- books that get alluded to and referenced a lot, the books people refer to as classics or definitive of their genres, books and authors I read (or was supposed to read but never did) for 12th grade English, books that are the origins of common phrases, that sort of thing.
This method has led me to a lot of great stuff. Turns out Frost and Tolstoy and Joyce and Dickens are all famous for a reason: they're really, really good.
posted by Commander Rachek at 9:58 PM on May 7, 2010 [2 favorites]
This method has led me to a lot of great stuff. Turns out Frost and Tolstoy and Joyce and Dickens are all famous for a reason: they're really, really good.
posted by Commander Rachek at 9:58 PM on May 7, 2010 [2 favorites]
If I talk about what I want to read long enough, I always get recommendations (of course, we're talking about purely non-fiction here). I make a list of what people tell me to read.
Which go through the filter of Amazon's reviews.
posted by lhude sing cuccu at 9:59 PM on May 7, 2010
Which go through the filter of Amazon's reviews.
posted by lhude sing cuccu at 9:59 PM on May 7, 2010
I find book recommendations from other books pretty often. Hedgehogging, a financier's memoir, led me to Proust Was a Neuroscientist (about science bridged with arts). I also look up stuff in Wikipedia, then scroll down to the footnotes, or look up books mentioned in the article text. The article on Freeman Dyson (physicist) led me to one of his works, Weapons & Hope (a treatise on the nature of defense, especially nuclear armaments). Other books I stumble upon in the library, or get recommendations from Amazon. I was looking for a travel guide on Russia at my library, and found a fascinating memoir from a person who hitchhiked across Siberia. Occasionally, I also read books reviewed in the Economist.
If truly dry, you can always stick to the classics (especially russian lit). I deliberately avoid best-seller lists (and in fact, some of my favorite books mentioned above were worst-sellers, because they're now out of print). Anthony Burgess called the monoculture of novels "best seller trash." But read what you will, and always check if you can get it from a library before buying it (unless you plan to refer to the book frequently in the future).
posted by mnemonic at 10:01 PM on May 7, 2010
If truly dry, you can always stick to the classics (especially russian lit). I deliberately avoid best-seller lists (and in fact, some of my favorite books mentioned above were worst-sellers, because they're now out of print). Anthony Burgess called the monoculture of novels "best seller trash." But read what you will, and always check if you can get it from a library before buying it (unless you plan to refer to the book frequently in the future).
posted by mnemonic at 10:01 PM on May 7, 2010
Go to a real brick and mortar independent bookstore. The smaller it is, the more likely it is that everyone who works there has read almost everything in the world, so if you tell them "I just finished X and really liked it," they should be able to suggest 2 or 3 things you might like, and tell you a little bit about each one so you can make a decision.
The more often you go back and talk about what you thought of what they sold you, the better the staff member you talk to will know your tastes, until eventually they're like "Oh, you're back! I was stocking shelves yesterday and noticed something I think you'll like, it's right over here...." Or at least that's how we did it when I worked at a bookstore :)
posted by neitheror at 10:12 PM on May 7, 2010
The more often you go back and talk about what you thought of what they sold you, the better the staff member you talk to will know your tastes, until eventually they're like "Oh, you're back! I was stocking shelves yesterday and noticed something I think you'll like, it's right over here...." Or at least that's how we did it when I worked at a bookstore :)
posted by neitheror at 10:12 PM on May 7, 2010
Check out Genreflecting. It's a fabulous compendium of reader's guides and is sorted by genre. If there's a particular book that you liked, chances are, a host of others that will suit your taste will be listed alongside it.
Also, ask your local librarian. They live for this sort of thing. Seriously.
posted by kittenplease at 10:14 PM on May 7, 2010
Also, ask your local librarian. They live for this sort of thing. Seriously.
posted by kittenplease at 10:14 PM on May 7, 2010
For fiction, I get a lot of leads from a friend of mine with a vast book collection. Occasionally she foists suggested reading upon me, and in turn I provide her with books I don't want that she can trade in at the used book store.
I also go through multiple works by the same author, and check out the "customers also purchased..." section on amazon.
posted by yohko at 10:24 PM on May 7, 2010
I also go through multiple works by the same author, and check out the "customers also purchased..." section on amazon.
posted by yohko at 10:24 PM on May 7, 2010
I spend hours wandering Amazon every week and have no problem finding more books that I want to read than I have time. :) Caveat: I only read non-fiction.
posted by Jacqueline at 10:45 PM on May 7, 2010
posted by Jacqueline at 10:45 PM on May 7, 2010
Have time to kill near a bookstore without your current book on hand. I cannot get out of a bookstore without spending $100. Period. My 'to be read' pile is out of control.
posted by mollymayhem at 11:20 PM on May 7, 2010
posted by mollymayhem at 11:20 PM on May 7, 2010
Here's one a bit different: See what's at Goodwill, the Salvation Army. The collections are random and the books are cheap. I've come across all sorts of books/authors I didn't know about, read a few pages, taken a shot and come across all sorts of enjoyable fiction and non-fiction. If you don't care for it, at least it can be donated back to the store and they can sell it to someone else.
posted by ambient2 at 11:28 PM on May 7, 2010
posted by ambient2 at 11:28 PM on May 7, 2010
If a book I like has won a specific award, I go to wikipedia and find other books that have won the same award. Especially helpful for books in a certain genre - mystery, horror, fantasy, whatever - but often also helpful for general fiction.
posted by Rinku at 12:39 AM on May 8, 2010
posted by Rinku at 12:39 AM on May 8, 2010
I love the NYTimes book review.
I also have a good group of friends using GoodReads.com, so I'll check out their reviews and recently read books.
I also love the tournament of books at The Morning News.
posted by shesbookish at 1:18 AM on May 8, 2010
I also have a good group of friends using GoodReads.com, so I'll check out their reviews and recently read books.
I also love the tournament of books at The Morning News.
posted by shesbookish at 1:18 AM on May 8, 2010
I find most of my new authors through LibraryThing, which offers a ton of tools for exactly this purpose. If there's a book in my library that I loved and I want to read something similar, I click on the book's name and LibraryThing gives me a long list of recommendations broken down by several categories. I can read reviews of these books by other members, and there's even a "Will You Like It?" scale that tells me how much LibraryThing thinks I'll enjoy a certain book, based on the other books in my library and my ratings of them.
The site also automatically generates a list of members whose libraries are similar to mine, and I often find new authors by going through their profiles. If I take a look at another member's favorite authors and their author cloud, I can say, "Yes, we both clearly love the works of X and Y, but who is this Z? I have never heard of Z, and yet this person who shares my love of the subtle genius of X and Y must have a dozen books by Z." When I click on Z's name, LibraryThing gives me a list of all Z's books, and I can read the reviews and play with the "Will You Like It?" scale and so forth.
posted by timeo danaos at 5:52 AM on May 8, 2010
The site also automatically generates a list of members whose libraries are similar to mine, and I often find new authors by going through their profiles. If I take a look at another member's favorite authors and their author cloud, I can say, "Yes, we both clearly love the works of X and Y, but who is this Z? I have never heard of Z, and yet this person who shares my love of the subtle genius of X and Y must have a dozen books by Z." When I click on Z's name, LibraryThing gives me a list of all Z's books, and I can read the reviews and play with the "Will You Like It?" scale and so forth.
posted by timeo danaos at 5:52 AM on May 8, 2010
I talk to friends about what they're reading. Then I add the books I find interesting to my mental to-read list. I also try to read books that I've known of a long time but never got around to reading for one reason or another. And I seek out book reviewers that read books that otherwise get little attention and check up on them for interesting reads (e.g. The Complete Review). I don't necessarily pay much attention to the reviewers judgment if the description makes it sound like it's up my alley.
posted by Kattullus at 7:10 AM on May 8, 2010
posted by Kattullus at 7:10 AM on May 8, 2010
I ask the librarian for recommendations.
posted by TooFewShoes at 7:58 AM on May 8, 2010
posted by TooFewShoes at 7:58 AM on May 8, 2010
I tend to go into thematic phases where I'll only read books of a certain type for a while. Some past phases have included books about French dining and cooking, British schoolgirl stories, Egyptian mysteries and so on. I tend to find an author I like and try to exhaust his or her ouevre, especially if I can find their books available for the Kindle. I scan through old AskMetafilter questions on the lookout for books that sound interesting and download samples to my Kindle or add them to Amazon wishlists. I both browse through Amazon looking at reviews (taking them with a big pinch of salt) and take recommendations from people close to me who know my tastes. I still have days where I don't have anything I read, at which time I just reread an old favorite.
posted by peacheater at 8:13 AM on May 8, 2010
posted by peacheater at 8:13 AM on May 8, 2010
I keep a list in the back of a notebook of books that sound interesting: recommendations from friends / intriguing reviews / referred to in passing in some other work, etc. I will likely never catch up and fully expect that the day they shovel the dirt on me there will still be fifty or a hundred books awaiting my attention.
The downside: occasionally years pass between when I noted the title and author and when I actually get to read the book. I have read at least a dozen books in the last decade where I had no idea exactly why I wanted to read them.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:23 AM on May 8, 2010
The downside: occasionally years pass between when I noted the title and author and when I actually get to read the book. I have read at least a dozen books in the last decade where I had no idea exactly why I wanted to read them.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:23 AM on May 8, 2010
My public library has a feature called "If you like this author you will like..." that has steered me toward new finds. One favorite blogs is Bookshelves of Doom, that covers young adult literature: it has amazed me how many authors I love who write under the YA label. Another blog I read frequently is Smart Bitches: beside SF, fantasy, mysteries, and gothic I also enjoy reading romance: the reviews are hilarious without mercy for the bad books from mildly bad to "I couldn't read past the first paragraph" bad.
posted by francesca too at 8:51 AM on May 8, 2010
posted by francesca too at 8:51 AM on May 8, 2010
I have the book 1000 Books You Must Read Before You Die. It's a pretty solid list, and helpful when I'm not sure what book I want to read next.
posted by mmmbacon at 9:45 AM on May 8, 2010
posted by mmmbacon at 9:45 AM on May 8, 2010
I use Gnooks on occasion, or I'll look up an author I like in Amazon and try the "Customers who bought this item" feature.
posted by fiercekitten at 1:04 PM on May 8, 2010
posted by fiercekitten at 1:04 PM on May 8, 2010
If I'm out of sequels and new books by authors that I like, I go to the library and browse the new books (fiction and nonfiction). I do indeed pick things up based on their covers and dust jackets. I get a huge pile and flip through them for a bit, and leave some of them there. I take home a bunch of books, and I don't read them all. I always have multiple books on hand that I haven't read yet.
Other than that (like when I buy new books), I find them based on an aggregate of friends' reviews, reviews on websites and in newspapers/magazines/etc. (on and offline), and so on. Now that I have in iPod Touch, it's easier to carry a list with me, but previously I'd been stashing things on my Amazon Wishlist so I wouldn't forget. Its recommendations are pretty useless for fiction and graphic novels/manga, though. If I'm looking for a nonfiction book, I do read through its reviews to try to see what has generally good reviews, particularly by specialists. If it's something in my field or another academic field, though, I look for journal reviews as well.
Finding the "best" book on a subject? That doesn't sound simple to me--it sounds nearly impossible. Defining the "best" is quite a fraught proposition. I don't know who reads that way. (For one thing, there's rarely a single "best" book on a given topic. Usually you need to read several to get good coverage.) There was a fun thread on what book in your own field you'd recommend to other MeFi'ers, but even with that subjective frame, it's not as though everyone agreed.
posted by wintersweet at 1:46 PM on May 8, 2010
Other than that (like when I buy new books), I find them based on an aggregate of friends' reviews, reviews on websites and in newspapers/magazines/etc. (on and offline), and so on. Now that I have in iPod Touch, it's easier to carry a list with me, but previously I'd been stashing things on my Amazon Wishlist so I wouldn't forget. Its recommendations are pretty useless for fiction and graphic novels/manga, though. If I'm looking for a nonfiction book, I do read through its reviews to try to see what has generally good reviews, particularly by specialists. If it's something in my field or another academic field, though, I look for journal reviews as well.
Finding the "best" book on a subject? That doesn't sound simple to me--it sounds nearly impossible. Defining the "best" is quite a fraught proposition. I don't know who reads that way. (For one thing, there's rarely a single "best" book on a given topic. Usually you need to read several to get good coverage.) There was a fun thread on what book in your own field you'd recommend to other MeFi'ers, but even with that subjective frame, it's not as though everyone agreed.
posted by wintersweet at 1:46 PM on May 8, 2010
I like looking up whatever I just finished on goodreads to see if any of the reviewers have a similar take to my own. Then I click through to see what else they've read, and pick and choose from among their other favorites.
posted by croutonsupafreak at 5:03 PM on May 8, 2010
posted by croutonsupafreak at 5:03 PM on May 8, 2010
I use my library's search feature a lot.
I noticed that some of the books I've enjoyed recently had a library keyword of "Humorous fiction", so I used that as a search term in the library catalog. It even lets me limit my results to only books that are currently available (not checked out) at my local branch, so I can make a little list of the ones that look interesting and then go find them on the shelves and read the dust jackets.
My library also lets you keep personal lists, so I often save things to a list to read later. (I even have a "Get Again" list for books I want to revisit.)
And seconding the library's New Books shelf - I picked up Charlie Haas's The Enthusiast just from seeing it on the New Books shelf, and I LOVED that book.
Also, if I've found an author I like, I'll often Google AskMeFi to see what threads mention that person; the thread will often recommend similar things. So, when I found I liked Elinor Lipman, I did
elinor lipman site:ask.metafilter.com
Oh look - someone mentioned her just a couple weeks ago in a thread I didn't see. Huzzah!
posted by kristi at 9:57 AM on May 12, 2010 [1 favorite]
I noticed that some of the books I've enjoyed recently had a library keyword of "Humorous fiction", so I used that as a search term in the library catalog. It even lets me limit my results to only books that are currently available (not checked out) at my local branch, so I can make a little list of the ones that look interesting and then go find them on the shelves and read the dust jackets.
My library also lets you keep personal lists, so I often save things to a list to read later. (I even have a "Get Again" list for books I want to revisit.)
And seconding the library's New Books shelf - I picked up Charlie Haas's The Enthusiast just from seeing it on the New Books shelf, and I LOVED that book.
Also, if I've found an author I like, I'll often Google AskMeFi to see what threads mention that person; the thread will often recommend similar things. So, when I found I liked Elinor Lipman, I did
elinor lipman site:ask.metafilter.com
Oh look - someone mentioned her just a couple weeks ago in a thread I didn't see. Huzzah!
posted by kristi at 9:57 AM on May 12, 2010 [1 favorite]
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posted by leesh at 8:27 PM on May 7, 2010