Beyond Goodreads
post by Michelle Griep
How real do you like your fiction? Personally, I like to read authentic, gritty reality-fiction. I want to feel the characters' emotions as if they're mine. I want to taste and smell and live inside the skin of the hero and heroine. I want the author to rip out my heart, swing it around on a string until I laugh and cry and throw up, then set it gently back in with a light kiss. Is that too much to ask?
Apparently it is. Some readers don't feel the same way I do, and as a result, not all publishers will put out that kind of fiction. Okay, so most won't, leastwise in the Christian market. Is that good or bad?
Neither, actually. It just is, which makes it tricky for readers like me to find a book that satisfies. But never fear, little readers. Besides the mothership of them all, Goodreads, I've found several more sites to help you discover books no matter where you land on the gritty to fluffy spectrum . . .
FictionFinder
Their motto is "So many books . . . so easy to find!"
WhatShouldIReadNext
An entire database that compares "like" books. Enter a book you like, and it will bring up a list of other books that are similar.
YourNextRead
This is somewhat like What Should I Read Next but their stated goal is to "make discovering, buying and enjoying a book as simple as finding your next film or band."
Apparently it is. Some readers don't feel the same way I do, and as a result, not all publishers will put out that kind of fiction. Okay, so most won't, leastwise in the Christian market. Is that good or bad?
Neither, actually. It just is, which makes it tricky for readers like me to find a book that satisfies. But never fear, little readers. Besides the mothership of them all, Goodreads, I've found several more sites to help you discover books no matter where you land on the gritty to fluffy spectrum . . .
FictionFinder
Their motto is "So many books . . . so easy to find!"
WhatShouldIReadNext
An entire database that compares "like" books. Enter a book you like, and it will bring up a list of other books that are similar.
YourNextRead
This is somewhat like What Should I Read Next but their stated goal is to "make discovering, buying and enjoying a book as simple as finding your next film or band."