Fans of Interracial Romance discussion
General IR Book Discussion
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How do you pick your next read?
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Most of my reads are culled from the Goodreads Court Of Opinions, usually located in the "latest read" thread of the various groups I'm active in. Books that spark conversation with people I "know" intrigues me every time. For me a friend with similar tastes championing a book trumps a million reviews from strangers.
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I tend to read the back of the book and prologue, if there is one to determine if I am going to buy a book. If they catch my attention, then I'm getting that book. I don't spend over 50 cents for a paperback book.
Paganalexandria **wicked juices bubbling over** wrote: "Most of my reads are culled from the Goodreads Court Of Opinions, usually located in the "latest read" thread of the various groups I'm active in. Books that spark conversation with people I "know"..."I'm glad you stated this. It makes joining a group like this one so very important. I've been with the group for a few years just reading posts. I haven't been very active. I find my taste in reading to be so different than most. Then again I write so I tend to nit-pick everything. It's good for my own writing, it's horrible when I'm supposed to sit back and enjoy it. I tend to do that with TV shows and movies too. What I might do is 'test' some of those book recommendations just to see where my tastes fit. Thanks for the advise.
Arch wrote: "I don't really care for pictures on a book. A lot of times the hero and heroine on the cover and in the book don't match. I like to imagine how the hero and heroine will look to me. For example. My..."I know what you mean about covers. I'm sure I missed many great books because of covers. What's that saying... you can't read a book by it's cover. I don't mind spending full price if it's excellently written. An excellent writer can make 250 pages about ice cream worth every dime and time in reading it. And I guess I expect an excellent read if it's full price, just been burned too many times to even want to try.
I think I'm the opposite, I don't know a lot of celebrities. I don't follow them well enough. I like to read books where the author give descriptions like golden brown for her skin and dark blue for his eyes, since attractiveness is subjective, I can make them both as attractive as I want in my mind. And then to be honest there are some covers of characters that I wouldn't view as attractive at all. Then of course the publisher makes the choice of cover much more than the author unless self-published. Unfortunately, self-published books are less likely to be well-written. It's a catch 22 for me.
Lv2rt wrote: "I'm glad you stated this. It makes joining a group like this one so very important. I've been with the group for a few years just reading posts. I haven't been very active. I find my taste in reading to be so different than most... "Because all of us don't like the same things, the other thing I utilize besides buzz, is the "Compare Books" feature. It's a great way to know if your tastes match before taking their word as gospel. And how you can isolate it to only check certain shelves because you might trust their paranormal recommendations, but your historical fiction tastes don't mesh at all.
My 'to read' process is something like this:My initial go to is based on author, I tend to buy/read by author first.
No question - Autobuy authors. These are authors who I love and will buy without even reading the blurb. A lot fewer now than used to be. I don't quibble about price point with them. Ilona Andrews is an example of this group.
Good chance - authors I like. These are authors whose work I have read a lot in the past. Usually they have a deep backlist and usually I've read them quite a bit. They are usually authors that I've downgraded from autobuy because either than have become hit or miss or I feel like they have been phoning it in on their last couple of releases. I'll still buy them, but I will wait for an attractive price. Or maybe if I am hearing bad news about the latest release I'll read reviews. May even get it from the library instead. Nora Roberts is an example of this group (although her JD Robb titles are autobuy for me, go figure!)
Moving on Up - Authors on my 'keep an eye out for' list. These tend to be newish authors who I have read at least two or more of their books and i have become impressed with them so that I am keeping an eye out for their latest release. If they continue to impress, could very easily move straight to autobuy. Lavender Parker is a good example of this group.
Mostly gave up on - These are authors that I used to love but too many disappointments in a row have made me very wary of them. I keep them in the back of my mind and will kinda keep track with what they are writing but probably won't read or buy unless there is a lot of positive buzz or really great reviews about the work. Janet Evanovich is queen of this group.
For individual books, the process is more dicey
- Recommendations, buzz and good word of mouth from my GR friends is usually the best way I discover new books by new-to-me authors. Especially ones I would have passed by. Jordan Abbott's MC series is a good example of that.
- Blogs. I have a couple of blogs I peruse and sometimes they'll review something that catches my eye. The best way to snag my interest esp. for an unknown book is for me to read a good detailed review. I especially like the 'Fangs For The Fantasy' blog. They usually do a POC/LGBTQ check in each of their reviews so you know how well (or not) non represented groups are represented in a book.
- Finally, last resort, i browse through Amazon/ARE. This is the least effective method. Too much volume, too many bad blurbs & bad covers. Very rarely will I unearth a gem. Once in awhile I do. MCA Hogarth's Earthrise series was one of my few recent successes. But most of the time, I give up through sheer self preservation.
@Tina - sounds like the way I've done it for years. Except now I'm getting old so my favorite authors seem to be dying off. I loved Octavia Butler. She wasn't so much a IR writer, more like a multicultural writer of Science Fiction. But most of her pairs were interracial. She had a few misses with her books but even then they were worth the read. But alas she passed away. I also like Thomas Adcock's books. I do believe he's still alive but haven't written a book in years. His wife is Kim Sykes so all his protagonists are White males with Black female significant others. But of course his stories are not romances. Mainly detective series. I loved Dark Maze. It started me reading his books.
But I've also read one from an author and loved it. Then brought the next one and boy was I disappointed to the point that I was done. There was a time you could take a book back to B&N not anymore.
It can very frustrating indeed.
I usually find stuff through GR, Twitter, or Tumblr. And usually a really good friend or someone with similar taste recommended it to me. I sometimes use the "similar" feature on here but that's had mixed results often times.
wordsanddaffodils wrote: "I usually find stuff through GR, Twitter, or Tumblr. And usually a really good friend or someone with similar taste recommended it to me. I sometimes use the "similar" feature on here but that's ha..."As far as the comapare books feature, isn't it weird how you might book soulmates in one genre with someone, but polar opposites when it comes to other type of reads? Happy someone told me you can isolate shelves for better results.
@Pagan : How far do you go to isolate yours? I could probably need help.
wordsanddaffodils wrote: "@Pagan : How far do you go to isolate yours? I could probably need help."I usually chose only the read for both, because I have tons of books unread on other shelves that get included. That usually gives me a good sample if they don't have that many books shelved (since it only samples 100 books max). When a person has huge collection, I then compare my read shelf against, their shelf most likely to contain the type of books that got me interested in their book taste to begin with (IR, biker, etc).
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Since becoming active in Goodreads, my method is definitely recommendations from folks on Goodreads that I trust or discussion in groups where people have similar interests to mine. And there are a few auto-buy authors as well as following books in a series I've started. A good cover may catch my eye but it has to have more than that for me to put out the dough. I find I'm even getting pickier on the free reads since there are so many out there and my TBR list is so huge.
What Andrea said. Only, I recently discovered that when I'm tired but unable to sleep, and the one-click is within easy reach, I can still be unduly influenced by a snazzy cover. (Oops!)
Tea wrote: "What Andrea said. Only, I recently discovered that when I'm tired but unable to sleep, and the one-click is within easy reach, I can still be unduly influenced by a snazzy cover. (Oops!)"This is why Goodreads is evil for now moving the Amazon buy button here too. lol
Pagan wrote: This is why Goodreads is evil for now moving the Amazon buy button here too. lol Gosh, you're right, Pagan! I kept telling myself to turn-off "one-click" because I was afraid I'd accidentally buy one day. While that hasn't happened yet, I know realise I need to fear impulsive decisions just as much as accidents. Perhaps the extra steps of doing it the several-clicks way will bring me to my senses in the future. ;)
So far that button hasn't tempted me but I did hit it by accident! Fortunately I caught myself before making the final deal. :(
Paganalexandria **wicked juices bubbling over** wrote: "Most of my reads are culled from the Goodreads Court Of Opinions, usually located in the "latest read" thread of the various groups I'm active in. Books that spark conversation with people I "know"..."
That pretty much describes my process as well. Sometimes I'll find something on my own that intrigues me because of the blurb and I'll go in blind but that's rare.
That pretty much describes my process as well. Sometimes I'll find something on my own that intrigues me because of the blurb and I'll go in blind but that's rare.
I usually go with the recommendations here. I also check to see if my fav authors have anything new out. As of right now, my husband has banned me from buying anymore books until I read at least half of the unread books I have on my kindle..LOL! Needless to say that is not going to happen.
Denise wrote: "I usually go with the recommendations here. I also check to see if my fav authors have anything new out. As of right now, my husband has banned me from buying anymore books until I read at least ..."And the freebies I'm sure aren't helping lol
As far as hubby is concerned all my books are free. Even when they aren't. He likes shoes and suits I like books.
I'm wondering how you pick IR books or any books to read? Once upon a time before the internet (yes, there was a time) long, long ago I would go to a big chain bookstore and spend hours looking at each cover and try to figure out if the heroine was Black and if it was a interracial romance. Nine times out of ten I went home empty handed.
Finally I started following authors in hopes of making the search easier. Now even with seeing covers and reading the blurb I still have problems finding excellently written books.
How do you pick the books you read? What things do you look for before purchase and do you rely on reviews and ratings to pick your next read?
Thanks in advance.