What Are Your Favorite Book or Reading Resources? (9/23/18)

[Marc]

These can be websites, bloggers, podcasts, newspapers, periodicals, Twitter accounts, bookstores, etc. Share with us where you "go" to find out about new books, read about literature, explore writers, etc. Tell us what you like about these resources.

(This top post will be edited to create a grand list from all the responses so please include a link if applicable.)

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS THREAD

SHORT STORIES
- The New Yorker Magazine

BOOK REVIEWS/NEWS/ESSAYS/INTERVIEWS
- African American Literature Book Club
- Arab Women Writers
- Arts & Letters Daily
- Bookforum
- BookRiot
- Commentary Magazine
- The Culture Trip
- Electric Literature
- The Guardian Books Section
- Her Culture
- Japan Times Books Section
- LA Review of Books
- LitHub
- The Millions
- Moder Mrs. Darcy
- The New Yorker Books Section
- New York Review of Books
- New York Times Books Section
- Powell's Books Blog
- The Quarterly Conversation
- The Root
- Signature
- Three Percent (focus on international literature)
- Times Literary Supplement
- Washington Post Books Section
- Words Without Borders
World Literature Today

PODCASTS/AUDIO/VIDEO
- Bill's Books (NBC NY)
- KCRW Bookworm

GR GROUPS
- Around the World
- Literary Fiction by People of Color
- The Mookse & The Gripes
- Newest Literary Fiction

[David]

For new literature I have two main sources: (1) I read the short fiction in The New Yorker every week (I'd say we are less than 6 hours from the next story to drop - this week by Yiyun Li). I like short stories, I like I can read these online for free every week, and I have discovered a number of authors I have come to read a lot from reading these stories. Off the top of my head it was New Yorker stories that were my first exposure to Ottessa Moshfegh, Samanta Schweblin, David Means, and Mohsin Hamad. I have now read everything the first two authors mentioned have published (in English) and two books by each of the others.

(2) Prize lists. When longlists for major prizes come out, I check out the nominated books. When shortlists come out, I check again. Some books grab my attention and others do not. In the last few years of checking prize listed books I have discovered authors like Rachel Cusk, Naomi Alderman, and Jesmyn Ward. I've now read 7 books each written by one of these authors.

[Marc]

Great resources, David! I like how the New Yorker will even e-mail you about the latest story each week if you sign up for the notification.

Most publishers have social media accounts and newsletters, as well. I'm sure I've signed up for so many of them I don't remember, but I like to keep up with my favorite presses, even if I can't actually keep up with reading everything they publish.

[Carol]

So many. I'm going to respond to this in batches.

The most important tangible source is my Sunday NYTimes Book Review. I probably augment my TBR by 20 titles each month from that source - the interview with an author, where he/she lists books on his/her nightstand, favorites, etc. is my favorite feature - except in rare instances where the interviewed author is more celebrity than literary.

In terms of online media, though (websites of newspaper brands), while I don't read any of these regularly, when I search for reviews of books prior to deciding if I'm interested in them, I am most often directed to reviews published in The Guardian and Japan Times. And the New York Times, God bless them, has uploaded all of their reviews seemingly going back until the beginning of time. I've been able to find and read reviews published in the 1940s and 1950s at the time books were first released, which is a blast for James Baldwin's novels, for example.

[Marc]

Was not familiar with the Japan Times--cool find!

[Lark]

I'm very impressed with LA Review of Books.

https://www.lareviewofbooks.org

I am a longtime subscriber to Bookforum and Times Literary Supplement and a sometime subscriber to NY Review of Books.

The occasional literary/cultural criticism in Commentary magazine is always terrific--this month they had both a long essay on Michael Chabon's relationship with Judaism and a retrospective on Ingmar Bergman's legacy.

I follow a lot of people in this group and in Mookse & Gripes! And these are my best sources, honestly. You should all take a bow!

[Rachelnyc]

Great topic!

I only recently found The Millions web site and added quite a few books from their Most Anticipated lists, which come out twice per year since the ones listed that I had already read were terrific. https://themillions.com/2018/07/great...

I also try to catch the bi-monthly "Bill's Books" with Bill Goldstein who was the original editor of the books section of the NYTimes.com. It's on the local NYC NBC affiliate's weekend morning news show but can also be seen on their web site https://www.nbcnewyork.com/on-air/as-...

[Marc]

These are wonderful!
If anyone doesn't see theirs added to the list in the first post, rest assured I'll eventually get to it. :-)

I added a few of my favorites: KCRW (which does audio interviews with authors), Arts & Letters Daily (lots of interesting essays, as well as covering new books), and Three Percent and The Quarterly Conversation (two sites that cover titles I don't usually see elsewhere).

[LindaJ^]

I think the Washington Post does a decent job with book reviews. I do not read it as much as I did pre-retirement when I had a physical copy to peruse, even on weekends, but I still do search out reviews by Ron Charles.

[Carol]

I am a fan of articles and other book-ish and literary content displayed or shared at the following websites, and I am either subscribed to their newsletters or I follow them on Twitter and access their sites from Tweets every couple of weeks. Yes, it's an addiction.

Words Without Borders
https://www.wordswithoutborders.org/d...

World Literature Today
https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/ (offers a newsletter).

Electric Lit
https://electricliterature.com/

The Root
https://www.theroot.com/

Arab Women Writers
https://arabwomenwriters.com/

LitHub
https://lithub.com/

BookRiot
https://bookriot.com/

African American Literature Book Club
https://aalbc.com/awards/

Powell’s Books Blog
http://www.powells.com/blog

Modern Mrs. Darcy
https://modernmrsdarcy.com/

The Culture Trip
https://theculturetrip.com/

Signature
https://www.signature-reads.com/categ...

Her Culture
http://www.herculture.org/blog?catego...

[Carol]

Truth, though. I find at least 50% of my reads and information about new releases, awards, anticipated publications etc. from discussion threads in 3 GoodReads groups (in addition to this one), and at least another 25% from my friends' reads, comments, and updates at this site.

Those groups are:

Newest Literary Fiction: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...

Literary Fiction by People of Color, particularly this thread:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Around the World
https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...

[Nadine in California]

Oh Carol, you have overwhelmed me in such a good way....

[Hugh]

I tend to pick up quite a lot via Twitter - I follow Guardian Books, a number of small presses and a few writers. I don't have time to search other sources, and I already have too much to read!

[Kristina]

Wow, Carol, thank you for these interesting looking link-collection. I'll check them all later.

I mostly get my reading inspiration from goodreads, by strolling through book stores and also recommendations by friends who have a similar taste in books. Reviews in newspapers only make up a small percentage, but more and more I keep reading them and adding books trough that to my shelf.

[Carol]

Nadine wrote: "Oh Carol, you have overwhelmed me in such a good way...."

I live to serve :)

Honestly, once I subscribed to enewsletters and then set up a rule in Outlook that they all go to a Books folder, I was very happy with the diversity of book info I had at my fingertips. Before I began to seek alternative inputs, I felt as though I saw the same four mainstream, Western-prize-eligible novels promoted via interviews or on top-ten lists (HuffPost, the Guardusn, the Indeoendent et al) ad nauseam. Happy exploration!

[Carol]

Kristina wrote: "Wow, Carol, thank you for these interesting looking link-collection. I'll check them all later.

I mostly get my reading inspiration from goodreads, by strolling through book stores and also recomm..."

You’re very welcome!

[Kamakana]

here

[Jerry]

I have to give a massive KUDOS to the Los Angeles Public Library, which has an exemplary collection of ebooks. Thanks to LAPL, I have access an incredible number of ebooks that I would have to either buy or do without. This library's e-collection allows me to take advantage of all the wonderful book ideas and suggestions I find on GR. I don't know what I'd do without it. Would that other major cities follow their example. (I'm looking at YOU, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Toronto ...)

[Whitney]

Jerry wrote: "I don't know what I'd do without it. Would that other major cities follow their example. (I'm looking at YOU, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Toronto ..."

I believe all of them (except maybe Toronto) carry Hoopla, which allows access to many thousands of ebooks.