Branching out

Yathrib

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I don't know how many people are like me in this, but I find myself constantly going back to the same well for reading material. I have a choice, select few authors that I read from, and I have a devil of a time adding anything new to my sphere. I'd like to think that I'm well rounded/read, but since I graduated college, I haven't read anything new unless someone practically put it in my hands and said, "Read this!"

Therefore, I ask you fellow readers/writers, how do you get yourself to try something new concerning reading materials?
My mother reads so much that she frequently re-reads a book and doesn't realize she's read it before, so I asked her what she does. She said she looks for books like she's grocery shopping at the library, and she, quite literaly, judges a book by its cover.

What do you guys do?
 

Pagey's_Girl

Still plays with dolls
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I do what your mother does, I think - I just poke around the bookstore or wherever, and if it looks interesting, I get it.
 

ejket

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I've been aggressively and successfully seeking new authors lately. I've bought a scary amount of books over the past two months---I guess 50 or 60. I consider myself successful because I haven't run across a single dud out of all those books so far. Some authors are more enjoyable to me than others; for example I don't love Don DeLillo, but I'll read him and I'm not sorry that I have a couple of his books. I can't begin to list the authors I do love; there are just too many, and several of them are recent finds.

What I do is basically google-fu and wikipedia-fu as well as scanning "what are you reading" threads on any forum where there are literate people. This site is good for recommends, and so is somethingawful's book barn. I also look for lists of good/great books. I look at the Booker winners (I tend to like these), The Big Read, Canada Reads, etc. There are a million favorites lists out there on the net to peruse and ponder. I also look at what authors I like are reading when I can find that information. Then there are books like Bloom's The Western Canon, which, whether you're a fan of Bloom or not, has a nice list of books in the appendix.

Then you have to vet them. I check out unknown authors on wikipedia, review sites, google.books (where you can sometimes read chunks of content), and amazon. I look for any information on an author and what their best books are thought to be. I admit that I'm biased toward prize-winning books. If I'm not very confident but still curious, I'll try to get a book out of the library. Anyway, I love doing this to the extent that I've had to start rationing myself. Only 5 books a month from amazon from now on---but I don't count trips to the used bookstore :)
 

Maine2

New kid, be gentle!
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I guess I'm like you. I have a hard time finding new books. I've read and re-read all the books from my favorite authors and I am at the point where I'm just waiting for the next round of new releases from them. I have been browseing book stores for the last couple of weeks now and I have bought several that I thought might be interesting but they just haven't captured my attention enough. So I continue the search. Good luck.