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Other than good reads, what are your favorite book/reading websites?
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Kevin
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Jan 23, 2009 10:18AM
Other than goodreads do you have any favorite websites to find your next favorite book or author?
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I like to use booksnbytes.com to look up an author's name and then you can see a list of the books that author has written and it divided down into series.
Stop! You're Killing Me! is a great site. Has just oodles and oodles of lists. You can look them up by author or by character. Very handy.
Lists of bests has lists which include the top 100 crime novels, voted for by crime writers. It allows you to adopt lists and tick off the ones you've read.Some really good books are mentioned which I'd never heard of.
I've been on the above lists too, but to discuss and learn about books and authors I either haven't tried before or don't know about, I also am on Chapters Community. I know several others on GoodReads are also members. I subscribe to SYKM (Stop! You're Killing Me!), Shelf Awareness (which is where I obtained and reviewed Andrew's The Gargoyle pre-release), Harper-Collins reading group on Facebook (other book sites on Facebook, too) and LibraryThing not to mention several author sites/newsletters. I have used booksnbytes.com for years and they have now expanded to listing authors other than mysteries and scifi as well.
Kevin, I also subscribe to Shelf Awareness and the DorothyL list serve, but my favorite place to find new authors and books is from my fellow bloggers. I've discovered my favorite authors through recommendations from others: Michael Koryta, Dennis Lehane, Chris Grabenstein, Michael Stanley, Craig Johnson, etc.
Deanne, thanks for the mention of Lists of Bests, I hadn't heard of that one before, but I've now bookmarked it!
bestsellersworld.com is a good website.
I was actually signing up as a reviewer on that site, but couldn't tell for sure if they would allow a Canadian to contribute, I don't think a Canadian can enter the contests. I got scared when I read the part about paying for the books at retail if I resign and don't have all my reviews in within 4 weeks.. what would happen in an emergency I wondered. I have parents in their 90s in another city, so I backed out without finishing the application. But I did bookmark it.
Betty, I didn't read that part and maybe it is new. I have been reviewing for bestsellersworld.com for a long time. I do think if you talk to Nancy Eaton who runs the sight she would publish your reviews although she might not want to send you books. I know that it is a hassle and much more expensive to send books to Canada. Another good site is www.armchairinterviews.com and I know that site has reviewers from places outside the United States.
I use stop you're killing me - the lists are very handy, but I'd never been to booksnbytes. it was great thanks for the info.
Thanks again Patricia. Interestingly, while on the site for Front Street Reviews (where I do a lot of reviews) I clicked on links and it took me to armchair interviews, but within their own page, so I don't know if they are connected, or separate. But the url you just gave me takes me directly to armchair's site, so I think I'll check that one out. I don't use Facebook's Harper Collins reading group anymore now that they have switched to reading their review books online instead of sending out copies.
Patricia, have you been to Reading Trails? http://www.readingtrails.com/ , it looks kind of interesting; I got the link from Armchair.
No, I haven't but I'll check it out.Thanks,
I did actually in my first message but unfortunately didn't put the link in. Thanks for doing so.
Rob wrote: "One more not yet mentioned is http://www.librarything.com"I have an account there, but your can't list all your books for free. I really prefer Goodreads to the similar sites I've tried. So this is the site I invite my reading friends to join.
Barbara, do they suddenly give you a cut-off? I have a lot of books listed there, hope I don't get sent a bill! ;-) I've heard that before, but don't know where they cut you off of free listing, do you know? Thanks.
You get 200 books for free. Then it's $10.00 a year or $25.00 for life -- whether yours or the site's isn't specified, but I'm not sure any web site is guaranteed a long life. That's why I like to back up some of my book reviews I might want to use later on.
Yikes! I've already got 312 listed there!
Michael wrote: "Shelfari is another good site"I don't like it as wall as Goodreads, and I guess I don't like building Amazon up anymore than necessary. I'm for supporting independent booksellers.
I didn't realize Shelfari was Amazon, the equivalent I guess to Chapters-Indigo Community. GoodReads at least lets you post any books, but Chapters you can only post the ones they carry and I assume Amazon is the same. I'm still figuring out what to do about LibraryThing. Any others? especially those that hold draws for books? (books you can hold in your hands, that is)
I also try not to build up Amazon. I support indy booksellers but I'm also adamently opposed to ANY bookseller who will sell materials on dog fighting and cock fighting. I'm not even sure how that's legal?
Good for you! Check out www.tomfolio.com some time. It's a cooperative of independent booksellers. You can access their shops separately or search the whole site as once. They don't have as many books as Amazon, but they have a strong code of ethics. You can select them as one of your search options on Goodreads if you want to. If you don't like one seller's books, you don't have to buy anything from him. I just did a key word search for dog fighting and nothing came up. Cock Fighting brought up four books, none of which were how-to type books. One was a history of British Sports, one an description of British sports, and two were signed prints of art.
Barbara, Thanks for the mention of tomfolio. I hadn't heard of it & went to their site to glance around. So many take advantage of Canadian buyers it's hardly worth it to pay the shipping on top of exchange, but I couldn't tell in my first glance how or if they handle Canadian members, although it does say international booksellers. Do you have any ideas on this?
Some of the sellers are Canadian. Each seller individualizes his own shipping rates. Most also do their own credit card processing. Even if the credit card is processed on the site, sellers can lower their their shipping fees from the shopping cart calculation if their expenses aren't that high. I sell a very small flip chart for teachers that weighs almost nothing. My minimum shopping cart price for media mail is $4.39 for one item (based on the weight of an average book). If a customer is from California, I charge the entire $4.39 because I have to collect tax on the shipping fee as well as the book. If the customer is not from California, I charge only $4.10, since I don't have to collect tax. When more than one item is on the order, there is a large discount on the postage, but if someone orders 10 flip charts I could still ship them for the price of one book, so I would charge the minimum for the entire order of ten books. (That's for the USA.)For international orders, I have standard rates that would cover the weight of an average 2-lb book.
If a Canadian orders something much lighter or several items that would fit in a flat rate envelope or box, the final shipping cost per book would be lowered when the order is processed. No charge is ever raised (as might be needed if your book weighed 5 lbs instead of 2)without your consent.
The idea is that you are the customer of an individual bookseller who is advertising his business on a site with several other booksellers. If you have questions or concerns about the order, you can contact the seller directly. All contact information is very easy to find when you are ready to order a book. If you want to, you can easily find the Canadian sellers and search only their sites. Just click the Bookdealers tab at the top of the page. The countries are in alphabetical order. Hope that helps.
I enjoy going to between the covers web site. It's just fun.http://www.betweenthecovers.com/btc
Another:
http://www.theedgars.com/
Thanks for the information Barbara, that's helpful.And thanks to you, too, Bluedaizyk, for the links, I'll have a look at them, too.
Not a list of books, but a site that features a new book every day and presents it in an interesting way is The Page 69 test at http://page69test.blogspot.com/
Barbara wrote: "Rob wrote: "One more not yet mentioned is http://www.librarything.com"I have an account there, but your can't list all your books for free. I really prefer Goodreads to the similar sites I've tr..."
Thanks for the tip, Barbara. Will keep that in mind. I'm a new member there but have not used it much, since I'm still too busy learning how to navigate in Goodreads. My purpose in joining was to learn about new authors I might like - same as my reason for being here in Goodreads.
This site has lots in a nutshell:http://www.omnimystery.com/
Kathy-Diane
Author of LET THE SHADOWS FALL BEHIND YOU
http://kathy-dianeleveille.com
For Erica Spindler fans, she's my guest this week on SHADOWS FALL N FRIENDS talking about her new novel BREAKNECK:http://lettheshadowsfallbehindyou.blo...
Kathy-Diane
Author of LET THE SHADOWS FALL BEHIND YOU
http://kathy-dianeleveille.com
thank you for this great thread, there are so many book websites to discover!
Thanks to all of you for the fantastic ideas!Happy Reading!
Hi,I'm addicted to this website http://www.mirlacca.com/Bookshelf.html, it used to be called clueless, but someone else picked it up. It's great to see when and what new releases will be coming up.
Happy Reading,
Sheryl
Sheryl wrote: "Hi,I'm addicted to this website http://www.mirlacca.com/Bookshelf.html, it used to be called clueless, but someone else picked it up. It's great to see when and what new releases will be coming u..."
Sheryl, that's a great link, but when I clicked on it I got an error page; I quickly realized that the comma on the end of the link was included in the url, so to everyone, if you get to the error page, just take the comma off the end of the url and try again, it will take you to the page.
