For those taking advantage of our contactless pickup, one of the questions for library users who like to browse is: what do I ask for? 

 

Since many people do not follow the book world nor read Publishers Weekly or the New York Times Book Review regularly, they are stumped.  In the past, you would have to depend on weekly or monthly magazines, but now with the Internet, there are so many sites with so many recommendations, you may never even get caught up with this summer’s books.

 

LibraryReads is a list of 10 books published every month of brand-new titles that librarians recommend.  One of the advantages is that all of their previous lists are available on their web site; and I often recommend using older lists since the books won’t be as popular now and you can find them on the shelf.

 

Amazon has a section called the Amazon Book Review which has interviews, book lists, weekend reading, best of the month.  Book Marks offers a look at the best reviewed new books by aggregating reviews and letting you decide which ones to try.

 

Book Riot has just about everything from podcasts to massive lists to newsletters on everything from romances to audiobooks.  Readers can spend days on Book Riot.  Bookbub is very similar with the best eBook offers, blogs, recommendations, and loads of lists.  BookReporter is another site which is easy to get lost in with its loads of recommendations and interviews.  One of the nicest things are their lists of all the books coming out each week in the month.  Librarians just love that.  It also has a section on reading group guides.

 

If none of these lists meets your needs, just google book recommendations, and be prepared for thousands of hits.

 

Hopefully, we will have the titles you ask for, or if not in print, on the WVDELI; if not, I have been looking at what people are asking for and buying accordingly.  We have upped the number of bestsellers we are buying, so the wait times on the latest Grisham and King should move quickly.

 

Remember when you call you can request 5 books or materials at a time.  We will call you back when they are gathered so that you can pick them up in the front foyer.  We are quarantining books and materials for 72 hours when they are returned so there could be a delay in your return call until it is safe to check them back out.

 

And we have put out back issues of BookPage, a free monthly handout packed with information, interviews, reviews, lists of what are the big books of the month in the front foyer.  BookPage is also available online.