Go To Websites for Information about Books
Looking for more information about your favourite authors or series, or for suggestions for what to read next? Check out some of these websites that we often "go to".
www.quillandquire.com/reviews
Quill & Quire is the place to go if you want reviews of Canadian books. With over 8000 reviews in their archives, you’re certain to find something of interest.
www.fantasticfiction.co.uk
Fantastic Fiction has bibliographies of over 30,000 authors and information on over 350,000 books. This site is particularly useful if you want to know the order for books in a series. It also lists publication dates. If a book has been issued under more than one title, i.e. different in England and the U.S., this is usually noted. (N.B. Cover photos tend to be the UK editions, and editions available here often look different.)
www.nytimes.com/pages/books
The Book Review section of the Sunday edition of The New York Times is the most important publication for people in the book business. Most importantly, the Times focuses on the main stream books that most of us are interested in reading. It also has the most reliable and comprehensive best-seller lists available.
www.shelf-awareness.com
Shelf Awareness is a website for all book lovers and maintains separate daily newsletters for both the book trade and readers. Covering both non-fiction and fiction, it provides everything from Q & As with authors to reviews of lesser-known but notable books.
www.bookriot.com
Book Riot is a great site for everything from reviews to odd bits of knowledge about the world of books, all with a healthy dose of humour!
www.goodreads.com
Good Reads provides reviews from fellow readers, rather than critics, and encourages you to post your own reviews. It can also help you find similar books to those you have already enjoyed.
www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books
Page-Turner at The New Yorker: Their tagline “criticism, contention and conversation about books that matter” really says it all.
www.classicmystery.wordpress.com
In Search of Classic Mystery Novels is the website for anyone who loves mysteries but hates reviews that spoil plot points and give away too much. It covers everyone from Agatha Christie to Lee Child.
www.stopyourekillingme.com
Stop, You’re Killing Me! is another great site for mysteries. This one helps you search for books by historical time period, location around the world or even the occupation of the main character (besides solving crimes).
www.librarything.com
Library Thing helps you keep track of your books and connect to other readers with similar tastes. Since it includes catalogues from the Library of Congress and hundreds of other libraries worldwide, it is easy to find the book you are after.
www.allreaders.com
AllReaders lets you determine the exact kind of book you want by letting you search by plot, setting or even descriptions of the main character. The information is provided by readers like us, so the more often you post your own ideas and reviews, the more accurate the searches will be.
www.flavorwire.com and www.ew.com/ew/books
Flavorwire and Shelf Life put pop culture at your fingertips. These two sites provide entertainment news across the spectrum. Catch up on what’s notable in movies, music and television, along with your book info.
www.toomuchhorrorfiction.blogspot.ca
Will Errickson’s blog Too Much Horror Fiction concentrates on vintage horror novels from the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s with special attention to the awesome bur freaky cover art of that heyday.
www.nybooks.com
The New York Review of Books is a serious publication for serious people. It is quite academic and its long reviews often describe books that are not found on the shelves of commercial book stores. But what wonderful reviews they are!
www.theparisreview.org
The Paris Review is for anyone who would like their literary musings to have a more philosophical flair. Especially noteworthy for their interviews with authors, the website has archives from the 1950s to today, so you can relive writers from Hemingway to Bradbury in their own words and in their own time.
www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books
The Washington Post Books would be just another great spot for book reviews, except for the reviews by Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist Michael Dirda. Dirda is a fount of knowledge on books, from their inception to today, but rather than being intimidating his reviews are genial and inspire you to read more widely than ever before.
www.abebooks.com
ABE Books is the largest Used and Antiquarian book website. They list books from sellers all over the world. ABE is a portal so if you order through them your credit card information is not passed on to the bookseller; rather you pay ABE and ABE pays the book store to send you the book. This is a great way to get older titles that are no longer in print.
