Poll: What is your #1 method of ebook discovery

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by applesauce

I detest hysterical romances and bodice rippers, but here is me submerged into the Outlander series, and loving it. That came about from a chance encounter with the tv series.

No idea how I got to read the series, as I also don't like that genre in general. As soon as I hear the word "romance", I usually put the book away never to look back. (I still need to watch the series, saw that it has become available on Netflix here, so it's on my list...)

But you do bring up another way I find books: movies and series. A lot of them are originally based on some book or other. And especially if I like the movie/series, I'll see if I can find the original book.

[applesauce]

I found Game of Thrones the same way, I do not like fantasy, but love Game of thrones. I can not think of any other tv shows that lured me to a genre I did not like. I see the word romance or dragon, mentioned in a book discription and drop it as if it burns my fingers. Another odity is the In Death series by JD Robb, I love them., that was a personal recomendation. Other than that it is thrillers and post apocyliptic. My TBR is longer than a life time at this stage, but I keep adding to it.

applesauce

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by applesauce

I found Game of Thrones the same way, I do not like fantasy, but love Game of thrones. I can not think of any other tv shows that lured me to a genre I did not like. I see the word romance or dragon, mentioned in a book discription and drop it as if it burns my fingers. Another odity is the In Death series by JD Robb, I love them., that was a personal recomendation. Other than that it is thrillers and post apocyliptic. My TBR is longer than a life time at this stage, but I keep adding to it.

applesauce

Never watched the series (never will), couldn't really get going reading the book, but I loved the audiobooks...

[Luffy]

- Other

I read the blurb, I take notice of the number of pages for the books, I take notice of the cover, but the number of pages is important. A 304-paged book for a cozy mystery is welcome.

[Smashwords]

Ya'll are awesome. Thanks so much for your insightful and myriad perspectives.

[dura]

I choose other. I know a lot of books I like, then I like at Amazon at those books, find the 'others also bought...'and then I pick books that look interesting and get good reviews to invest further.
I also follow websites of authors to see what they are doing, and sometimes they have good recommendations too. i feel I also should use Goodreads more, but sofar haven't done much with it.

[JSWolf]

I don't have any one way of finding books. I get certain ones that are part of a series I like. Others, the cover grabs me and I investigate further. Recommendations on MR, at WhSmith in the SF/F section, posts on Facebook from publishers I'm following, friends, etc. Books from an author I like. So really, I cannot pick just one.

[BearMountainBooks]

The last book I read was rec'd by a friend of mine. Many books I read are books she rec's. I also browse overdrive, although I end up reading very few of the books from there due to lack of selection. I sign up for email bargain lists off and on. Sometimes I find a decent book through those. Currently I am not signed up to any, but I have used these ad type emails in the past.

I no longer find browsing on Amazon at all useful. Two years ago, I was using the hebought/shebought or suggestions, but egads. They are useless to me now, as is searching on Amazon by genre or topic. I read a really great cozy that was set in Greece a year or so back and it was so much fun, I tried finding others like it using Amazon's search. Ha-ha. What a joke on me that was.

I have begun checking out a few review sites again too. But mainly, if I want to read a particular genre, my first stop is: Send an email to my friend. She reads over 200 books a year and doesn't spend time on forums because she is too busy reading!

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

I no longer find browsing on Amazon at all useful. Two years ago, I was using the hebought/shebought or suggestions, but egads. They are useless to me now, as is searching on Amazon by genre or topic. I read a really great cozy that was set in Greece a year or so back and it was so much fun, I tried finding others like it using Amazon's search. Ha-ha. What a joke on me that was.

Browsing Amazon for books is like browsing wikipedia for some knowledge. You find your first book and then go to completely different directions every time. I can spend hours browsing wikipedia to the point where I forget what I was looking for in the first place. But you can get gems on both sites doing this.

[Luffy]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

Browsing Amazon for books is like browsing wikipedia for some knowledge. You find your first book and then go to completely different directions every time. I can spend hours browsing wikipedia to the point where I forget what I was looking for in the first place. But you can get gems on both sites doing this.

I find wikipedia's style stunting to the seriously scholarly aspects of its knowledge. The writing and the explanations for scientific or literate knowledge seem obscure to me. Wiki doesn't explain everything equally well IMHO.

Amazon reviews are okay, but not gasp inducingly helpful.

[pdurrant]

For new authors, it's recommendations at MobileRead.

[Atunah]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

I no longer find browsing on Amazon at all useful. Two years ago, I was using the hebought/shebought or suggestions, but egads. They are useless to me now, as is searching on Amazon by genre or topic. I read a really great cozy that was set in Greece a year or so back and it was so much fun, I tried finding others like it using Amazon's search. Ha-ha. What a joke on me that was.

I have completely given up browsing amazon. Years ago, I used to spend some time each week to browse at leisure with varying sorting and filtering. By genre, publication date to see what came out new, by besteller, when it went past top 100, by ratings, etc. There is so much miscategorizing going on now and so many shorts and novellas packed in the genre I like that I lost all my joy of browsing.

But, what now works for me better than ever is recs on goodreads. I never really liked the also boughts anyway as I don't really care what else someone bought. I care what else they liked. That is a big difference to me. And that is what they do on goodreads. Whatever they did there with the recs, on the site and on my kindle is spot on. Like say you loved a book and want more like it, you go to the book on goodreads and look at where it says "readers also enjoyed". Its on the top right.

And then there are the recs that I got using the goodreads connection on my kindle. Somehow works a bit differently. You get to pick the genres you are interested in and it uses your own ratings and others ratings to base the recs on. This is my "browsing" now.

I think Amazon search and listings have been ruined with keyword abuse.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by Atunah

I have completely given up browsing amazon. Years ago, I used to spend some time each week to browse at leisure with varying sorting and filtering. By genre, publication date to see what came out new, by besteller, when it went past top 100, by ratings, etc. There is so much miscategorizing going on now and so many shorts and novellas packed in the genre I like that I lost all my joy of browsing.

But, what now works for me better than ever is recs on goodreads. I never really liked the also boughts anyway as I don't really care what else someone bought. I care what else they liked. That is a big difference to me. And that is what they do on goodreads. Whatever they did there with the recs, on the site and on my kindle is spot on. Like say you loved a book and want more like it, you go to the book on goodreads and look at where it says "readers also enjoyed". Its on the top right.

And then there are the recs that I got using the goodreads connection on my kindle. Somehow works a bit differently. You get to pick the genres you are interested in and it uses your own ratings and others ratings to base the recs on. This is my "browsing" now.

I think Amazon search and listings have been ruined with keyword abuse.

preach on, brothers, preach on.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

preach on, brothers, preach on.

She is a sister not a brother. But agreeing with the sentiment.

[cvkemp]

I get most that I read from kindle unlimited. But also keep up with about 5 series. Tom Clancy, Alex Lukeman, Steve Martini, Vince Flynn, and C. G. Cooper