Your Next 5 Books

Knowing my love of reading and my desire to acquire additional reading recommendations, my husband sent me this link: Your Next 5 Books, which is sponsored by the Seattle Public Library. It was incredibly intriguing to me, and I didn’t hesitate.

The site asks you the following questions:

1. Tell our librarians about a few books and/or authors you’ve enjoyed, and what you liked about them. Also feel free to tell us about books you haven’t liked, and why. What are you in the mood to read next?
2. Are you interested in books for Adults, Teens or Children? List all that apply.
3. Do you have a preferred format? Book, Book on CD, eBook, eAudio, or Large Print – list all that apply.

I responded with the following:

1. Here is a list of books I’ve enjoyed: Pride and Prejudice, The Reader, The House of Mirth, And Then There Were None, The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Eat Pray Love, Anne of Green Gables, Around the World in 80 Days, and The Help. I am in the mood for either a mystery or a romantic story. Something a bit light-hearted.
2. Adults
3. Book and eBook

Once you submit your answers, do NOT expect an immediate 5 book response. This is not a computer generated operation, and I kinda love that about this. Your submission goes to an actual librarian who uses your responses to the questions to come up with 5 books that you may be interested in.  I believe I got my response around a week later. I am okay with this, because it gives me the illusion that the librarian was contemplating my next 5 books for the whole week to come up with just the right list for me. After all, for me, this is serious business.

The response I received was incredibly lengthy and descriptive. Karen, the woman that responded to my submission, went far beyond just listing books. She explained how she came up with her recommendations based on my previous interests, and what I desired to read next. Her recommendations were as follows:

1. Envious Casca by Georgette Heyer
2. The Twelve Clues of Christmas by Rhys Bowen
3. Sense & Sensibility by Joanna Trollope
4. The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
5. City of Dark Magic by Magnus Flyte

All the recommended books were either mysteries or romantic novels around the same lines of what I had requested. All books can be found in the library and on the Amazon Kindle. I am looking forward to getting started. I have already gotten the first book on the Kindle.

I definitely recommend that you try the “Your Next 5 Books” link out and see what you get.

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Books vs. E-Readers

Today everything seems to be virtual. There is no need to call friends and family on the phone when you can send them an email or use some form of social media to keep in touch. Photographs are all digital now. It only makes sense that books would start to take an electronic form as well. Is it too soon for this though: Bookless Public Library?

I am not going to deny that I myself own a Kindle and use it. I travel and read a lot. Ten years ago when I would go on vacation, half my luggage would be books. Now I may take one physical book and my Kindle. E-readers can supply you with multiple books and allow you to travel light. Plus, having just moved oversees and not able to take too many books with me, the E-reader ensures that I never run out of things to read.

However, while I enjoy my Kindle and having another reading option, I prefer physical books. It is hard to explain how much I enjoy browsing bookstores and libraries, looking at all the different books that I could read, and pulling them off the shelves to explore their back covers. Plus, after working on a computer for eight hours a day, the last thing I want to do is come home and read a novel off of something similar to a computer screen.

As mentioned in a previous post, I have moved quite a few times in my life. It is never easy to adjust to a new home. I’ve lived in some not so great places too. However, it never matters where I am, as soon as I unpack my first book and put it on a shelf or next to my bed, I feel home. In our last home, I loved all seven of our fully packed bookshelves. In our new place in Lucca, we have a parlor/library (pictured above) that I am very excited about.  We are already doing our best to fill the shelves with the books that we brought with us and the ones that we are finding here. It is my favorite place in the whole house.

Books and libraries = happiness. Let’s save them both!