More often than not, when I go into the Library, I have no clue what I want to read. Most times I'll set out at least an hour of time so that I can thoroughly browse every nook and cranny of the building. Recently though, I've discovered two really great online book blogs that have given me some really awesome ideas for books.
The first one is NPR's book blog [www.npr.org/books]. I found out about it on a drive home from work. Let me just point out that the people of NPR are really good at making some awesome reading lists. This summer, they've been doing a blog series of summer reads, ranging from the 100 best thrillers to great "laugh out loud" books for the beach. This last weeks was particularly interesting, because it featured nonfiction books to drag us "back to reality" for the end of summer. Another great piece that the NPR blog features are interviews with authors where we the listener find out what these popular authors have recently been reading. They also have all the reviews and commentary you'd expect from National public radio. One title I’ve recently discovered is Justin Cronin’s The Passage, a vampire book that makes Edward and Bella look like cute little kittens.
The second blog that I frequent that has been really helpful is the Shelf Life blog at Entertainment Weekly’s website [http://shelf-life.ew.com]. Not only do they give me all the great reviews that I like to help me pick a book, they also gave great pop culture tie-ins too. For instance, the final book in the Hunger Games trilogy was recently released, and Shelf Life is asking readers who should play the hero, Katniss, on the big screen. The blog doesn’t do just books either. It also features audio books, new releases in digital books, and graphic novels and comics. Two books I recently found on the Shelf Life blog were The Disappearing Spoon: and other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements by Sam Kean and Hot X: Algebra Exposed by Danika McKellar. The Disappearing Spoon makes science and the periodic table both funny and cool, and McKellar’s Hot X makes math sexy again (if it ever was in the first place).
There are certainly many more books to browse through on both blogs, and there are absolutely other blogs out there, but these two give you a little bit of information about nearly everything. So keep an eye out for titles that pique your interest, and be sure to let us know what you want to read. We’ll be happy to oblige if we can.
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