How to Find Books That Can Redefine Your Life
Reading slumps—they come for us all. We start a new book with fervor and lose interest quickly. We reach for the TBR stack, but nothing looks particularly good. We search page after page of audiobook recommendations on Libro and listen to a dozen samples, but nothing sounds quite like what we’re looking for. We know it’s just a phase. It will pass. We know it isn’t usually this way. We know that pretty soon, we’ll be back to reading books we love and feeling like we can’t finish them fast enough because there are so many others we want to get to. But knowing that doesn’t always help when the reading slump goes on and on and we start to feel like we’ll never read anything good again.
Here’s the good thing about being in a reading slump — Now is when you’re hungriest. Now is when you want a good book in your life more than ever before. Now is the time when you’re most ready for a really, really good book.
Now is the perfect time to find a book that can redefine your life (or, let it find you).
A couple of years ago while in a reading slump, I was listening to a podcast and heard about a little book called Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert. I quickly bought the audio version and within just a few hours of listening, I had not only discovered something powerful about myself in its pages, but I also discovered the gorgeous novel State of Wonder by Ann Patchett, Elizabeth Gilbert’s fictional tome The Signature of All Things, and the poetry of Ruth Stone, which is something that changed my life and my family deeply in a very unexpected way (more on that later, I promise).
If you happen to be looking for a few good books yourself . . . Or might even be in the market for a book that could redefine your life,
Here are a few good ways to find them:
#1— Bookshop Hop
This is my favorite way to find a good book—hop in the car, walk into the nearest bookshop, and pick up whatever calls to you. (I’ve found SO MANY great books this way.)
#2— The Snowball Method
Pick up a book you’ve loved in the past, read until the author starts talking about a book that inspired them, then look up that book and read it. While reading that new book, mark the pages where that author mentions books that inspired him/her/them, and start again. Keep snowballing like that and you’ll never run out of good stuff to read.
#3— Flip Through
If you’ve dog-eared pages in books where authors mention books or authors, you already have a treasure trove of recommendations waiting for you. Flip through a few of your dog-eared favorite books. Maybe one of them will catch your eye.
#4— Lists at the back
Many authors have started listing books they love at the back of their own books. Go to the last book you loved and flip to the back to see if there’s a list there from the author. If not, search the author’s website and see if she/he/they mention books they love there (like this author’s website with “Recommendations” right at the top).
#5— “More like this” section
If you read book reviews and summaries on Amazon (& then order them from Bookshop.org of course), pull up a book you know you love on Amazon and scroll down to the bottom of the page to the “More like this” section. You might find another one you love there.
#6— Author deep dive
Think of a book you devoured in the past, something you really couldn’t make yourself put down. Now dig up a list of everything that author has ever written. See if something on the list speaks to you. Read it.
#7— Ask a friend
If all else fails, text a friend who reads and ask her to recommend something. (You might have to think hard here, but I bet you have a friend who’s into books. She’s probably shy about it, but you know who she is.)
Not sure what these good books look like exactly?
Here’s the #1 thing you’re looking for: Which book makes you feel something?
Emotion—that’s the secret. The books that end up redefining our lives are the ones that evoke the most feeling, the biggest emotions in us, even if we can’t quite explain why.
Happy finding!
A few more resources to help:
& the book I’m reading right now (& loving)⤵⤵⤵
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