I am very organised when reading and finding new fiction authors. I have a large spreadsheet that lists potential authors to try, with links to their Goodreads ratings and whether I can find them at the library or whether I have to buy them. When I read the author and like them, I start a new tab where I keep track of what I’ve read and my thoughts on their books, colour-coded by whether I’d read it again.
Regarding choosing authors based on reviews, Goodreads has become more and more full of unreliable guff, so I’ve decided to throw that out the window. Where does that leave me? Well, I’ve decided to go against my very anal retentive instincts and rush in headlong without a plan.
It started when I went to my local library and saw a cart at the front labelled “What others are reading”. It was full of recently returned books of any genre that people recently read. I felt a little nosy and a bit like I was indulging in my FOMO, which is a great way to pull people in. I grabbed a book off the cart with an interesting title and blurb and loved it! I wasn’t anything I would’ve found online via algorithms, which are just pushing whatever book will make the most money for the seller.
Ignoring my alphabetical list of authors for the time being, the next time I went to the library, I completely winged it. I went over to the mystery section (my favourite genre) and picked out a few that looked interesting and off I went. It sent me off on a very fun adventure, and I definitely intend to do this now and again. I highly recommend throwing caution to the wind, especially since commercial websites don’t have your best interests in mind.