My Next Good Book - a new service of HCPL and ReadersPlace

FIND A GOOD BOOK, SHARE WHAT YOU ARE READING, TAKE PART IN DISCUSSIONS, MEET AUTHORS, CREATE BOOKSHELVES

Readers Place has just launched a new interactive service for HCPL customers looking for their next good book to read. My Next Good Book is both an interactive source of reading suggestions and a place to participate in book discussions, with over 6 million books to choose from!

My Next Good Book lets readers either just browse for book suggestions, or, after login, compile any number of personal bookshelves, leave comments on the books, or share the shelves with others.

My Next Good Book is customized. My Next Good Book is tailored to HCPL needs. My Next Good Book is part of ReadersPlace on the Harford County Public Library website, and has links direct to our catalog from the recommended titles.

Most important, My Next Good Book is personalized for each account holder. That’s why it is called, “My Next Good Book!”

My Next Good Book has a special area for reading suggestions from Harford County Public Library staff. Featured are lists for new fiction and large print on order for HCPL, with links to the catalog for each title. HCPL Director, Audra Caplan has posted a list of books she has read recently. Readers have given us their favorites from Winter Reading for you to browse.

Our intended audience is adults, though there is a book discussion group specially for teens. The book discussions are listed by topic. Click on the Book Discussions button at the top of the page. Also at the top of the page is a Meet Authors button. Meet 3 to 6 different authors a week.

Click on the “About” page to see all the ways you can use My Next Good Book. Check out the My Next Good Book page on ReadersPlace.

How to Find Your Next Good Book in Genre Fiction

The October 2007 edition of Novelist Notes, which is an online newsletter that goes with our subscription to Novelist, had these excellent tips to finding genre fiction booklists.

I have recommended Novelist before. It's a great tool, particularly for finding similar books to one you have just read and liked. A drawback to Novelist that I have encountered is that the categories they assign to books are often too general to be meaningful. You have to be really clever to identify and choose the aspects of a particular book that you would like duplicated in your next read. I feel when I am using the "find similar books" feature that I need a human to intervene and describe the essence of the book in a more focused way. Novelist mitigates against this drawback by providing an increasing amount of editorial comment and expert articles. One such editorial feature is "Explore Fiction Lists."

Explore Fiction Lists has just been updated. This article explains how to use it. The article is directed to librarians, but I have quoted here only the parts that would be relevant to readers and book groups:

"NoveList and NoveList K-8's ready-made book lists are great sources for eager patrons and busy librarians. NoveList is now pleased to announce that all of our genre-based Explore Fiction lists have been completely revamped and updated. In addition to the updated lists, we have added several new genre lists, including Historical Fiction and Graphic Novels at the Adult level, based on requests from our users.
All of the popular genres, including Mysteries, Romance, Science Fiction, Fantasy and Historical Fiction, are covered in the Explore Fiction lists. Each genre contains a number of lists covering popular sub-genres, for example "Contemporary Romances" and "Romantic Suspense" under the Romance genre. Each list contains 15 to 20 titles, carefully selected by experienced librarians...
Here's how to access NoveList's Explore Fiction lists:
Select the Browse Lists tab.
Under the Explore Fiction heading, select the appropriate reading level link. To find the new Adult Historical Fiction list, select the "Adult" link.
You will see a list of genres to choose from. Select the "Historical Fiction" link.
A listing of sub-genres will display. Choose a topic of interest, for example "Immigrant Experience," to see the full list of titles.
At the end of each Explore Fiction list, you will find a description that will give you more information about the books on the list or how you can find more books like those listed. Please note that at each list, you can select a title to link directly to the book record for an annotation, reviews, and links to other resources."
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