The Reading Challenge Group discussion

Before Goodreads how did you pick books to read?

I usually just wandered around the library or bookstore until I saw something that looked good. I still do that a lot in all honesty. For mangas, I usually look at the adds in the back to see if anything looks interesting.

Before Goodreads I used to spend ages looking around bookstores and libraries making notes of interesting books in a notepad to refer back to later.

Clare wrote: "Before Goodreads I used to spend ages looking around bookstores and libraries making notes of interesting books in a notepad to refer back to later."

Ditto. I also used to read literary magazines and blogs or book reviews in newspapers, writing down the names of the books that interested me and referring back to my list later.

I used to spend hours on Amazon or just wandering around the library. I had no clue what I liked to read, so it was very frustrating. Then I would usually just choose a well known author like Agatha Christie or Mary Higgins Clark.

Just by recommendations, or if something caught my eye at the store.

The same way I do now, through reviews, recommendations, seeing interesting titles in the store or advertised, seeing others read it.

Other book forums that are no longer in existence and book group recommendations. Before the Internet I read book reviews and wandered through book stores and the library. I still love browsing and discovering something new. I love recommendations, but there's something magical about browsing with no expectations of what I might find.

I recall looking in the newspaper for book reviews

Before Goodreads, I was a member of Doubleday Book Club and I would pick my books via their mailer. I would write down the books I liked and get them at the library.

Then, miracles of miracles, the World Wide Web came and my whole life changed and I found a plethora of books and the rest, as they say, is history

I usually wandered through bookstores and jotted down titles to look for at the library. I went to the library at least once a week to browse shelves and checked out collections at various branches to get more variety.

Bookstores and library

There was a before goodreads? lol. I spent hours on amazon and prior to kindle I wandered around libraries and bookstores.

I worked in a bookstore for a few years after college which gave me a great exposure to different genres and recommendations from customers who would rave about their favorite authors and books. It's was a fun, interesting job.

That sounds like fun. I always wanted to work in a book store.

Renee, so much fun! I have been told I am never allowed to work in a bookstore cause then I would have no money for what I need LOL... Only too right!

My younger daughter worked in a bookstore during university and for a few years after she graduated. She bought a lot of books, and many of them are still in my house, even though she moved out eight years ago. Of course, she has kept buying books since then, as well as her husband, so I don't know if she will ever have room. I don't mind keeping her Harry Potters here, though.
She and her sister also recommend books to me, since they know what I like.
My older daughter convinced me to read a couple of books that were a stretch for me- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and A Clockwork Orange.