Goodreads.com is the ultimate book lovers’ website! It is a social book cataloguing website that allows users to search its database of books and book reviews. Once you sign up, which you can do via Facebook or Amazon, you can mark your favourite books as books you have read, and receive recommendations based on them. You can take a peek at what your friends are reading, and read reviews on books that catch your eye. Continue reading Introducing Goodreads.com
It’s almost like getting paid for reading! Readercoin is an app for iPhone and Android which has thousands of e-books and audiobooks available for free. Readercoin “pays” you 1 Readercoin for every 10 minutes you spend reading or listening. Readercoins are then redeemable as rewards, such as Amazon vouchers, Kindles, and even real cash (via PayPal)! It has ratings over 4 stars on both Google Play and the iStore, has a load of free classics, and is also a great way to discover lesser-known treasures!
Inkitt is a reader-powered publishing app, and what that means for readers, is that you once you sign up you get free access to hundreds of pre-published books. They have just about every genre – and fanfiction too! You can access the books online, including on HTML, iOS, and Android. You can offer feedback to the authors if you so wish. How it works for the authors, is that if they get enough reader engagement, they get their book published. Fun all round!
Let me introduce Fiction Express – it’s a great way to keep kids interested in reading! Every half-term the first chapter of a new book is made available, the children get to vote on what happens next in the story! The following week, the most popular plot-line is published for the children to read. There are also quizzes and activities, and the chance to talk to the author online!
You can sign up at https://www.fictionexpress.co.uk/ and there’s a free trial available. There are 3 reading levels: ages 6+, 8+, and 10+. Have fun!
Looking for book recommendations? Check out Richard and Judy Book Club – they recommend about at least 6 books per season and they all available in WHSmith UK stores, on the Kobo app, and on Amazon. They select books across several genres, so there’s something for everybody. You can sign up for their newsletter, or follow their blog on https://blog.whsmith.co.uk. You can also follow them on Facebook, Twitter, etc.
On the blog, when you click on a book cover to find out more, you are taken to a new page, with Richard’s review of the book, followed by Judy’s review. Neither review contains spoilers. There are other great gems on the blog too – such as interviews with authors where they discuss things like deleted chapters and alternative endings!
Are you a fan of killer crime and drama? Look no further than DeadGood! Signing up to DeadGood’s newsletter is a great way to keep informed of the best of the latest crime and thrillers out. With all their bestsellers, and great-deal offers, there’s plenty to discover for crime and thriller fans! I discovered DeadGood on Facebook, but in addition to their own site, you can also follow them on Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest.
Folks, if you’re looking for reviews on movies and box sets as well as books, look no further than Smashbomb.com!
Smashbomb is a social platform that lets you research and discover new things through recommendations from your friends, experts, and influencers. It’s a great little site, despite still being in its early (beta) stage. It has reviews on all the latest entertainment from books to games to tech to movies to TV series.
Anyone can join in, signing up is free. You can say your piece on products already on there, search for reviews on things you’re interested in, receive recommendations, see what’s trending. Item pages are well set out, with ratings out of 10 and scores displayed much like reviews on Amazon. You can make your reviews as brief or as long as you want.
You can now follow Book Blog by Cari on Smashbomb, just hop along to their site smashbomb.com, sign up, and search for BookBlogbyCari.
Do you want your next read to be a complete surprise? Blind Date with a Book has got it covered! You receive a completely wrapped-up book, tagged with intriguing clues alluding to the book inside. It makes for a great gift! The books are hand selected great reads and are chosen from all genres including classics, thrillers, mysteries, romances, science fiction, adventure, and literary fiction. They pick books that readers may have missed by great authors or other great books that perhaps did not receive the publicity that they deserved. I’ve taken a peek at their range of genres and clues and it looks superb!
The books come in at slightly under the usual price of paperback, and postage is circa £3. You simply pop to their website https://blinddatewithabook.com, and select a book based on the clues provided.
If you’re after a new surprise book every month you can subscribe to their exclusive book club – details on their website.
The Pigeonhole is the new generation book club app that lets you read books for free, whilst making and reading comments from readers, and sometimes even the authors.
The editors handpick exclusive books to release in stages called staves, over a series of days – so it’s ideally for fitting into a busy day. On average a stave is about half an hour reading time. There are usually several new releases a week. There are also a few older classics on there too, like Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein.
It’s available for both Android and iOS, just search for “Pigeonhole” – all you need is an email address to sign up. The books are completely free, but they are only allowed to release a set amount for each book. In return for the free read you are sometimes asked to leave an honest review on Amazon.
If your anything like me, you may be interested in non-fiction but struggle to find the time. If so, Blinkist is a fab little app for you. It summarises thousands of non-fiction works, which can either be read or listened to within 15 minutes. It’s available on Android and iPhone. The mere 15 minutes means you can fit them in around your day with ease, and you can read/listen offline which can be really handy.
Its summaries are really well written, with an introduction to each one, including reasons to read each one, who they’re aimed at, and an author bio. Main points are communicated not in a chapter by chapter basis but grouped into main areas. Notable quotes from the book are made to stand out, and there’s a wrap up at the end, where the summariser normally aims to provide actionable advice from the book. Best of all the info from the quick 15 minutes read is plenty enough to enable you to sound like you know what you’re talking about. If nothing else it will help you decide whether you want to read the whole book, as it’s quicker and more informative than reading a free sample.
It appears to be mainly sought over for its self-improvement titles, but also draws a lot of attention for its new perspectives on the world with bestsellers in psychology, politics, economics, science, history & culture. Some use it to stay abreast of developments in their field of expertise.
It has an excellent rating on Google Play, and rightly so. I gave the free trial a go, and the app was soon able to pick up on what I was more interested in, and provide some great recommendations of titles. During the free trial, you can read any summary in its collection. When my free trial ran out, I was (and am) able to access one free summary a day – which is great for my personal target of aiming to learn something in non-fiction every week.
For me, it’s an app I wouldn’t be without!
