Tip of the Week: GoodReads

Tip of the Week: Sign up for GoodReads and discover your next favorite book. 

GoodReads allows the user to create lists of book they have read and books they want to read. It also allows them to create their own custom lists. In my case, I have an additional list titled, Books I own, but haven't read yet. This enables me to keep track of all the books I want to read, while not mixing the books I want to buy and the books I already own. 

GoodReads is a great place to find a book you'll love. One way GoodReads helps you find your next book is by analyzing the list of books you've read and the rating you gave it (based on 1-5 stars) and then it generates a list of books that may interest you. Also, there is an 'Explore' feature that leads you to  'Listopia' to find Best Young Adult Books, Books Set in Wales, Can't Wait Books of 2014, etc. You can also explore by genre, or by the most read books of the week, new releases of the year or month, books that have been reviewed recently by other users, and finally you can explore Books at Random if you're not sure what you'd like to read next. 

Once you find a book (or a plethora of books) you want to read, you can consult the GoodReads community to find out more about the book. GoodReads provides a profile on each book. One of the many helpful features is the cumulative rating. For instance, Ally Carter's Uncommon Criminals (the second book in the Heist Society Series) has 18,566 ratings and the average rating is 4.19 stars. Along with the cumulative rating, you can also read all of the individual reviews of the book by other members of the GoodReads community. The book profile also gives a detailed description of the book and a link to the authors page, where you can read a bio and discover other books written by the same author. 

GoodReads also lets users connect with other readers and join groups based on interests in certain books, topics, genres, etc. 

This is hardly a cumulative list of all the wonderful features GoodReads offers. Check it out and see for yourself!

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What are you reading this week? Tell me in the comments!

Genre Hoping

I generally reach for commercial fiction in the young adult market, usually mystery or thriller. However, it's important to read outside of your literary comfort zone. I'm still reading YA, but I'm testing the waters with dystopian.

Right now I'm reading four books, two novels (detective fiction and mystery) and two biographies. Once I'm finished with those four, I'll push myself to choose one of the dystopian books on my GoodReads to-read list!

Also, if you're not sure if you're ready to commit to a new genre, Amazon.com has books bundle samplers. These samplers offer readers a few free chapters of a few different books, usually within the same genre.

Samplers: Breathless Reads | more Breathless Reads | Teen Sampler | Dystopian Teen Sampler | Dark Days of Summer Samples | Must Read Teen Sampler | Epic Reads Book Club Sampler | Fantasy Fiction | Dark Days of Winter Sampler | Team Summer Reads Sampler |

You can find many more e-book samplers by searching for 'sampler' in the book department on Amazon

What are you guys reading? Are you reading outside of your literary comfort zone? Tell me in the comments!

Tip of the Week: Tea Time

One of the best ways to grow as a writer is to read constantly and then chat about it with other avid readers. I recently discovered one of the greatest web shows of all time, Tea Time with Team Epic Reads.

Tip of the week: Watch Tea Time and find new books to read

Tea Time

For about an hour a week, the hosts of Tea Time "get a little nerdy" and talk about books. If you love reading and talking about books then you will absolutely love this, often hilarious, web show.

You can catch the show live on Wednesdays--follow their Twitter feed to find out when and where!

In the meantime, catch up on the old episodes of Tea Time on YouTube!



Find them on: YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumbler, and on their website.