Today’s question from The Boston Bibliophile: Today’s topic: Recommendations. Do you use LT’s recommendations feature? Have you found any good books by using it? Do you use the anti-recommendations, or the “special sauce” recommendations? How do you find out about books you want to read?

Honestly, I have not found the Recommendations feature to be much help. I have checked it a couple of times, but it seems primarily to give me a list of all the other books by authors in my library. It’s really not much of a stretch to assume that if I own the first three books in Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files series, that I might be interested in the next three, is it? I had hoped it would show more unusual connections. I’m not sure I see the point of the Unsuggester, really. Why would I want a list of books I probably wouldn’t like? (And the last time I checked, I found two books on my Unsuggester list that were actually in my library!)

As for the ways I find books, I read a lot of blogs, I read a couple of newsletters (like Shelf Awareness), I read book reviews in the New York Times and on the NPR website, and I make frequent trips to the bookstore and the local library. In addition, I have a host of other LibraryThingers who can and do make great suggestions. I doubt I will ever be at a loss for ideas!