Top 10 Websites for Booklovers
By Editorial Staff
Contributed by Aurora LaJambre, Catalogs.com Info Guru
For booklovers, nothing beats a good read – except maybe the thrill of passing it on to a friend.
No matter how you prefer your reading material – hard- or soft-cover books, on a Kindle, by CD through audio book clubs – part of a booklover’s pleasure is sharing insights on the books that shouldn’t be missed.
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Here are our suggestions for the top websites for booklovers, starting with the tenth on our list:
10. Lit Lovers
Lit Lovers is a small website designed primarily for book clubs. The content includes reading guides, book recommendations, and discussion tips. Though the site is not interactive, it offers free online literature courses and features book clubs by region.
Tagged as an online book journal, Books Well Read is designed for readers to record their thoughts about a book with the option to make these entries private. For students, the catalog includes reference and text books.
8. Blippr
Blippr is an addictive social media website that aggregates short reviews of 160 characters on books, apps, games, movies, and music. The site’s concept is to provide a platform for users to quickly share and find recommendations.
Project Gutenberg is the first and biggest online collection of free digital books. Founded to encourage the “creation and distribution of eBooks”, users can download eBooks in the catalog or refer to the running list of top 100 books and authors downloaded.
6. Book Slut
Named one of the best literature websites by the New York Times, Book Slut is a treasure-trove of thoughtful, well written book reviews, author interviews, and bookish essays. This is not an interactive website, but it’s a great place discover quirky, smart authors and titles you may not come across otherwise.
Book Crossing’s mission is to “connect people through books”. What sets this site apart is that it gives every book a unique identity by assigning it a tracking number. Users register books, ‘release’ them, and enjoy watching their books pass through the hands of others located all over the world. The online archive and tracking system is free and lets users connect by reading habits and shared opinions.
4. Book Glutton
I love the look and readability of this website. Users can read public domain books, annotate as they read, and share their thoughts about specific passages with groups. The intention of the website is to give readers the space to easily make notes while they are immersed in the text. You can request an invite to join a book group, form your own, or discuss each book independently.
Paper Back Swap is an enormous online book club. Users mail books to each other and only pay for delivery. The catalog includes over 4.5 million paperbacks, hardbacks, textbooks, and material for audio book clubs. The community section has discussion forums and each book has ratings, reviews, and a running stream of recommendations.
2. Shelfari
Shelfari is one of the most attractive book websites because it features a readers’ eye candy of choice: book covers. Users see a virtual book shelf where they can drag and drop books and play with their order of favorites. As an Amazon.com property, this global community of readers is growing fast. Users can rate, review, and discover books from a comprehensive catalog.
1. Good Reads
With more than 3.3 million users, Good Reads is the largest social network for readers. The site is free and allows users to make recommendations, compare their ratings with their friends, track the books they’ve read and plan to read, form book clubs, and follow the reading lists of participating authors. When you add a book to your list, you can see what friends thought of it and note the date you finished reading it. At the end of the year, enjoy looking back on a year of great reading.
More on the Top 10 Websites for Booklovers
Many online booksellers and book clubs have built large commercial websites with interactive features. As part of the shopping experience, booklovers can read reviews, post comments about books and share recommendations with other booklovers. They can chat with authors, post questions and search for books suggestions by saving their own preferences.
Readers always love to share their opinion, pick the brains of like-minded readers, and build a record of their personal reading history. Varying in style, functionality and focus, a whole other category of websites are designed to specifically to accommodate the “conversation” of booklovers, evoke a sense of awe at the sheer volume of books in the world, and the joy of trying to read every one of them. These sites don’t sell hardcover or audio books, but they are great inspiration for a visit to your favorite bookstore. With frequent buying clubs, book club memberships and other discounts, getting enough reading material doesn’t have to be expensive. Readers can always buy books cheap online.
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AND, sharing opinions on the books you’ve read is always free!