What to read next...

If you're anything like me your ever-growing list of books to read is so long you'll need a couple of lifetimes to get through it and that's when you start asking yourself what of all these titles should you read next. Or at all. You can use prestigious literary award shortlists as your guide, or you can read what's at the top of the best seller lists, or you can read something by your favorite author that talks about their favorite books, but what if all those options aren't yielding any intriguing results and your home library with shelves bowing under the weight of books is like a woman's closet, full but with no acceptable options whatsoever? Fortunately there are people out there who take the dilemma so seriously that they've created websites to help those of us in need of someone to make the decision for them. Here's a handful:
What Should I Read Next is extremely simple, it only asks you to type in the title of the book you liked and then produces a list of similar titles. BookSeeker operates in the same way but has better graphics. Another site that's a cousin to these two is YourNextRead which has even better graphics, shows blurbs and reviews from Amazon, and generates 8 options based on the title of your choice. A word of caution, it is very addictive, with every click the options morph into something else and it's hard to stop clicking.
WhichBook is a UK site that offers a much more complex approach: it asks you to select what you are looking for from a dozen different parameters and based on those generates a list of books that match them all. If you prefer looking for a read based on character, plot and setting they have an option for that too. WhichBook gets bonus points for providing not just titles but also summaries and a chance to see similar titles. If you don't feel like playing around with the sliders there are also lists with headings such as Short and Sweet, Weird and Wonderful, and A Terrible Beauty.
I think I'll go play on WhichBook, if none of these appeal to you here's a list of resources from the Hackley Public Library page. Happy hunting, ahem... reading!