The Bookseer = The cure for book befuddlement.

I’m constantly on the search for great new books to read. The only problem? There’s a lot of crappy books out there. And if you find a good one, how do you find more good ones like it without resorting to the no-brainer option of choosing another one of the author’s works? Answer: The Bookseer. Thanks to this month’s Real Simple for the hot tip!

Example: I just finished reading Shoplifting from American Apparel by Tao Lin. I should mention here that my decision to read it wasn’t dictated by genuine interest in the author or his writing but rather, embarrassingly enough, on the concept and cover design scheme of Melville Publishing House’s The Art of the Novella and The Art of the Contemporary Novella series: short books by good authors. And, oh yeah, if you collect a lot of them, they look really good on a shelf together.

What can I say? I’m lazy. And a sucker for clever marketing.

In any case, I finished Shoplifting in about three or four hours. It wasn’t the most earth-shattering thing I’d ever read, but it was still entertaining, and I realized I was interested in pulling away from my old stand-by, Jane Austen, and exploring the world of post-19th century British literature.

So I went to The Bookseer, typed in the book name and author and within seconds was provided with a list of similar books culled from Amazon and LibraryThing. Pretty nifty, huh?

For advanced users: Try searching for books that you hated so you know which ones to avoid in the future :)

Tags: books, bookseer, reading, real simple, shoplifting from american apparel, tao lin