How do you find a good book?

[jpcher]

On my Nook, I'll look at the genre categories that I'm interested in (mystery, detective, romance) then look for authors that I know and like*. I'll read the synopsis and some of the reviews and go from there.

For the higher priced books, I'm normally not disappointed. (Except for the last book I bought by Tami Hoag. I think it was the first book she ever wrote. I didn't even finish reading it. The cost was $7.99 and that just hurt my feelings a bit. )


Has anybody ever bought a $2 and under (including free) book for their nook that was actually any good

The few that I've bought or downloaded for free have been rather poorly written . . . the synopsis and reviews are better quality than the book! (That's probably why they're free, right? )

Does anybody have recommendations for good cheap-free nook books?



How do you find a good book?

What do you look for first? Or do you just randomly decide "This sounds good." How often have you been disappointed?



*What if it's an author that you've never read before?

[siamesecat2965]

When I first got my Kindle, I went overboard on the freebies, and most of them were just so-so, not well written, and so on. And there were so many I couldn't keep up!  I've pretty much stopped doing that, and will buy books by certain authors I like, full price or not, but I also check out some of the websites that list "deals" Amazon and B&N seem to price match, so many times the same books available cheap on one, are also on the other. every now and then too I find a steal by a best-selling author. for example, i really like Kathy Reichs Temperance Brennan books, and recently scored one I hadn't read for 2.99.

i also read reviews if something looks interesting, and if the majority of them are good, I will take a chance. But the downside to all of that is I have tons and tons of books waiting to be read! I don't feel quite as disappointed if I only spend a few dollars and it turns out to be stinky.

 the one that really disappointed me was by the author of the blog "The Bloggess"I think i paid 12.99 for her book, and quite honestly, it was terrible. Her blog is funny, but the book was not.

[Slartibartfast]

I'm an author and I'm friends (in person and online) with a lot of other authors, so most of my ebooks are because someone tweeted or re-tweeted a friend saying "My book is free today!"  Of those free books, 90% I don't even finish, but I have found several fantastic authors.  When I find someone I like I go back and buy their other books at whatever price they are at the moment, which I guess is the purpose of having free days every once in a while :-)  It has also helped me branch out, genre-wise - I still mostly read romance (since my friends are all also romance authors), but I used to read paranormal and historical romance almost exclusively.  I've found good ones in other subgenres since then (most recently Trish Milburn's cowboy romances - I don't normally care that much about cowboys and Texas contemporaries, but I read three in three days last week!).

[faithlessone]

www.goodreads.com

I've found so many good books through this website. You can find people who share your taste in books, you can see what else they've read/how they rated books/what's on their to-read list. After you rate more than 20 books, you can get recommendations. The more you rate, the better the recs tend to get.

I've also been lucky enough to make a few friends there who will recommend books they'll think I'd like. I haven't come across a dud yet!

[Jocelyn]

Book Bub.
Ereader Today
Inspired Reads
Pixel of Ink

[MariaE]

Seconding the goodreads recommendation (points to sig). I've been a member since 2007 and love it there.

[nayberry]

i check the free amazon listings, have far too many authors following me on twitter (deity knows why i hardly tweet!)  and i have a few friends who recommend freebies/cheapies to me,   
i did find an interesting US author and was in fb correspondence with him and mentioned i was waiting for payday so i could order his new book from amazon US as it wasn't available in ebook format for the UK, he emailed me the book for free!!  (was an interesting, if high in scrabble, vampire book)

ETA - check out the Calibre software, you can get any free ebook and it turns it into the format you need for your e-reader

[Petticoats]

This is a pressing topic to me since I'm trying to get my own books in front of more readers. There are so many being published in my genre now (YA paranormal romance) that discoverability is really challenging.

As a reader, I subscribe to Book Bub and Ereader News Today, and I'll take a chance on free or cheap books they advertise if I like the synopsis and the "look inside" sample. In general the books I find in those newsletters are good quality.

I've stumbled on a lot of books and authors I like through Amazon's recommendations. I always check the "look inside" sample, though. Often it just takes a glance at the first paragraph of the actual text to tell me if I'm going to be able to tolerate it.

I'm also meeting more writers (and hence getting introduced to more new books) since I started joining writers' organizations, Yahoo groups, and Facebook groups.

[Lady Snowdon]

I check out Pixel of Ink every day for free/cheap books.  After I find a book I liked (and I have found a few ones that I ended up liking and buying more of that author for full price), I'll look it up again and see what Amazon/B&N say are "similar" books, and check those out.  I also follow a couple of publishing houses on Facebook (notably Tor and Baen) and check them often for what's coming out that I might like.  I found a great author (Patrick Rothfuss) by browsing through Kickstarter projects and coming across one that featured him and a few other authors in a calendar of some sort.  That was probably a one-off though!   

[Amara]

(1) Recommendations of my best friend when she comes across a wonderful NF book (she reads mostly fiction).

(2) Recommendations from online "friends" at BookBalloon.com, a readers' forum with wonderful discussions.

(3) Seeing something online at Powell's or on the new nonfiction shelves at the library.

[readingchick]

I like to read the blurbs on the back covers of paperbacks. If lit looks interesting, I buy it. If it doesn't pique my interest, back on the shelf it goes. That's how I discovered Julia Spencer-Fleming, Ellen Crosby, Connie Archer, and Julie Hyzy.

[dawnfire]

I third the goodreads suggestion. If you do the readers challenge, it will start suggesting books based on what your reading.

[Bijou]

I find an author, a genre or subject matter I like and go from there.  I have searched for  'authors similar to so and so' online and come up with some names that way.