How I Find Books to Read

I thought I would break up the monotony just a bit by going into how I find all these books to read. Well, first of all, I’ve been collecting books on my Kindle for years, so my “to be read” pile of ebooks is already quite extensive. And as I think I’ve mentioned, I’ve been using NetGalley for books quite a bit lately. But another source of inspiration for my reading pile is #bookstagram. 

#Bookstagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Signe ???? (@thebookchatter) on Jul 19, 2020 at 2:51am PDT

Now, when I say this, I don’t just mean that I find everything through this particular hashtag. But there are quite a lot of “bookstagrammers” out there. What are bookstagrammers, mind you? Well, besides just users on Instagram who like to read, they also post pretty pictures with books in them. And if you’re a bookworm like me, you probably also tend to enjoy looking at pretty pictures of books. But these accounts can also be a great source for places to find good books to read. A lot of bookstagrammers are also avid readers and reviewers. 

I won’t lie, I do spend a decent amount of time on social media. (Don’t we all?) But with this whole pandemic and election year stuff going on, Facebook and Twitter can often be a source of more stress and anxiety than comfort lately. I still check up on both of them to stay connected with friends, but I’ve been finding more comfort in looking at pretty pictures on Instagram lately than in memes or political opinions on other social sites. And since I was also finding comfort in reading a lot while quarantining, of course good recommendations for what to read became something I started paying more attention to. 

So, if you’re interested in checking out pretty book pictures and some good novel recommendations as well, here are a few bookstagrammers I’d recommend just to get started:

@urfaveplottwist
@thebookchatter
@crimebythebook
@truecrimethrills_andcupckes
@bookishcoffeelove
@chi_dmb
@wherethereadergrows
@heathersbookreview
@storiesandsarah

If you end up deciding to follow any of them, be sure to tell them that @girlvsplanet sent you!

NetGalley

I know I’ve mentioned NetGalley on here before as a way of how I find books, but lately it has been pretty much my sole go-to. I do find good books on Instagram, but since so many of these bookstagrammers are also reviewers, they tend to get their hands on some books that haven’t even been released yet. So what do you do if you come across one of these? You find a great post on Instagram (or elsewhere) about a book that sounds awesome. So you go look it up only to discover that it hasn’t even come out yet! Now what?

Well, that’s where NetGalley can be really useful. It’s basically a site for book reviewers to request ebooks of books that haven’t been released yet. There are tons of books on there, all ebooks and audiobooks. And they’re all free! However, there’s a catch. But it’s a good one. The catch is, that when you get a book from NetGalley, you need to write a review after reading it. The more books you read and write a review for, more of your book requests will get approved. So there’s some incentive as well.

What Next?

I tend to struggle sometimes with what to read next. With NetGalley, I have a list of books that I’ve requested and gotten approved for that are just waiting to be read and reviewed. I’ve requested a lot, and since I’m pretty new at this, I have gotten a few requests declined, but I’ve also gotten several approved. NetGalley recommends that you review at least 80% of the books you get approved. And while I hope to review 100% of them, my list is currently long enough that I just haven’t had time yet! However, I’m trying to get through them as fast as I can, and I’m honestly really enjoying it.

In addition to getting more (and better) request approvals on NetGalley, there are also badges. And who isn’t a sucker for earning a badge? I’ve already started off with one that you can view in my sidebar – just the “NetGalley Professional Reader” one, but I still thought it was cool enough to display on my site.

So there you have it. If you’re trying to social distance and stay safe right now, and you love to read like I do, Instagram and NetGalley should give you the perfect opportunity to find your next favorite novel… in addition to a few more good ones along the way.