If you ask me what my favorite book is, I’ll mumble a non-committal disclaimer and rattle off a few I’ve enjoyed recently. As an English major, aspiring writer and book gobbler, I simply can’t choose a favorite among the legions of books I’ve devoured. And I am constantly, continually, searching for something new to read. These book recommendation sites have got me buzzing and I can’t wait to start using them before a trip to the library.

What Should I Read Next?: With it’s clean design and simple format, What Should I Read Next? does one thing, and it does it well. When you finish a book that you particularly loved, just head to the site and type in the book’s title or author. You’ll immediately receive a list of similar books and links to Amazon to purchase them (although I just jotted the names down on a notecard for my next trip to the library…shhh). I prefer finding books that are similar to my favorites over entering in my preferred genres, which can result in an extremely wide range of options.

Which Book: This website has a delightful new way of generating book suggestions. The site gives you a number of scales to use to determine what type of a book you are looking for. You can choose a set point between unpredictable and expected, beautiful or disgusting, conventional or unusual, optimistic or bleak and many more. Then, the site generates book suggestions that fit your request. Loads of fun to play with the different options and you’re guaranteed a book that fits your mood perfectly.

The Staff Recommends: You know those little cards at bookstores and libraries that share staff picks? This site captures that idea by carefully choosing a handful of books to highlight at a time. Pros: Each book has an awesome explanation on why it made the list. The site is simple and enticing, making it a pleasure to use unlike so many of the other recommendation sites which barrage you with book choices. If you buy a book from an affiliate link via The Staff Recommends, any money they make it donated to charity. Cons: There are only a few books highlighted at a time, and you can’t scroll very far back through the past picks. If nothing appeals to you, you’re out of luck.

Your Next Read: What attracted me most about Your Next Read was the visual layout. Enter a book you’ve enjoyed, and a graphic is created that connects it with other, related books. A lot of the recommendations I got were similar from what I saw elsewhere, but were for the most part books I was very interested in reading. My only caveat: the blurb about the book is just from Amazon, so it doesn’t give much real information about the quality of the book.

I’ll use these sites to find titles of books I want to read and then hop over to my local library website and put my top picks on reserve so I can swing by and pick them up next time I’m out running errands.

For those who love e-readers, look into whether you can borrow library books on your Kindle. Most libraries nowadays support this feature. I do this when I travel, and love being able to load up a handful of books for free. If you set your device to offline mode, the books will stay loaded until you go back online, meaning you have all the time in the world to finish them.

RELATED: In The Digital Age, Books Are Still Gold 

Of course, the tried-and-true way to get a quick, trusted book recommendation (other than asking someone in person)? Post a Facebook status and see what your friends have been reading.

How do you find a good book? What are you reading now? Let us know in the comments below.

Written by Liz Wassmann 

Liz Wassmann is on the Dot Complicated editorial team and has written for a variety of Bay Area publications over the past several years. When she’s not reading or writing, she can be found daydreaming about her next trip overseas and practicing parallel parking.

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