Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish
and hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.
It’s all about bookish lists!
Share your lists and remember to stop by That Artsy Reader Girl to add your link
and The Broke and the Bookish to see where it all began.

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Top Ten Favorite Bookish Websites

Goodreads

Obviously I have to start with my holy grail of bookish websites, Goodreads. (It’s possible that some people reading this might not know what Goodreads is). It’s a cataloguing and social media site focusing on book reviews.

Without Goodreads, I couldn’t track the hundreds of books I own but haven’t read, or the ones I want to read but haven’t bought, or which ones I want to read but luckily my library has a copy, or the books I don’t want to read because the authors have pissed me off for whatever reason. I mean, I COULD track them, but they would be intense Excel documents, and as a bonus, I can look books up on Goodreads before I even buy them to check if I a) own them b) have them on my wishlist c) specifically don’t want to read them or d) check at a glance my friends’ opinions.

Goodreads is life.

PS You have to sign up for an account, you can use it purely as a database and not add any friends, and you can read ebook samples (if offered on that particular book) but it is not a place to find free ebooks.

PPS don’t pirate books.

Booklikes

Booklikes is like Tumblr for Books, and has an active and engaging community that I love and adore. You can find giveaways, trending books, follow tags, and post anything you want, not just book reviews. I went through a brief phase where I was posting music videos that made me think of the book I was reading, or trailers for the book’s film adaptation.

The Book Depository

My usual go-to to check if a book is available to purchase. Generally affordable and with free shipping.

Book Outlet

I’ll be honest here: I don’t use Book Outlet anymore. This is because I live in Australia. But if you live in the US and possibly Canada, it’s a great resource for sourcing cheap hardcovers. Book Outlet takes excess publishing stock and returns from stores like department stores (which is they you should try to buy from actual bookshops rather than department stores, because they return their unsold/unselling stock to publishers and then order less in the future and it’s generally bad for everyone involved).

The reason I stopped buying from Book Outlet is because of the long wait for cheaper shipping to Australia and because I was generally just looking for bargains, not being strict with myself and only buying books I desperately wanted. But I did do about 3 big orders of 5+ books and was pretty happy once my shinies finally arrived.

Booko

Want to purchase a book but don’t know where to find it? Booko can find you a list of places and their current prices to find the best deal for you. As a bonus, you can get free shipping from some bookshops if you go there via the booko.com portal.

Netgalley – Edelweiss

I’m shmashing these two together because they fulfill the same function.

If there’s an upcoming book with an ARC I’m dead keen to get my hands on, I got to Netgalley/Edelweiss to check if there is a copy I can request. Netgalley and Edelweiss offer books on all subjects for review to booksellers, librarians, teachers, and bloggers, and acts as a connection point between the book community and publishers. Of course, not every book from every publisher is available, it can depend on where you live (what rights to what territories have been acquired), and even if you do find something you like the sound of, your request might get refused for any reason. But I’ve received some pretty amazing books and I make sure to visit regularly to check out what’s been updated.

Amazon

 

Generally a decent place to find books, including audiobooks on Audible. When I lived in England I bought a few physical books and got next day delivery, which is awesome. Now that I live in Australia, I haven’t tried it for physical books yet, since the Australian Amazon store was only released earlier this year, but I still buy ebooks since I have a Kindle. My Kindle is linked, and the ebooks download right away.

Smashwords

Smashwords is the alternative to Amazon when it comes to ebooks. Amazon is pretty strict on what it will let you upload (content and covers), and some independent publishers and authors take umbrage at that, so they go to Smashwords instead. Smashwords does have quality control in effect, but it’s not as strict as Amazon. Smashwords will also let authors ‘sell’ their books for free, and automatically sends them to other stores like Kobo. I’ve purchased a few ebooks directly from Smadhwords, and I download the file but then email it to my special personal Kindle address and it downloads just like an ebook from Amazon.

Bookbub

Bookbub is a great place to sign up if you like temporarily free or cheap ebooks. Bookbub sends out daily emails alerting you to their particular deal of the day for whatever genre you’r signed up to. I’ve been a Bookbub member for years, and although I’m exclusively signed up for YA, I’ve seen a good mix of self-published and traditionally published books end up in my inbox. There’s generally one or two a day, and I’ve heard Bookbub requires you to have at least 50 five star ratings on Amazon before they’ll even consider taking money to promote you.

I think they’re trying to make it more social by allowing you to follow authors who have profiles and stuff, but I’m just in it for the email alerts.

My Library/Overdrive

Libraries are seriously undervalued. I can borrow almost anything on my library’s catalogue. I can check to see if they have a book I want to read, request it, and pick up the physical copy a few days later when it’s available. I can borrow audiobooks and ebooks so I don’t even have to leave the house. Overdrive is the portal to access my library’s catalogue, and they also have an app called Libby.

Honourable mentions:

Chrome extension: Library Extension

Following on from above, this extension for Chrome can show me at a glance if a book I’ve found on Goodreads or Amazon is part of my library’s collection. It’s so useful: it means I don’t have to keep jumping between tabs to do a while library search. Seriously guys, if you love books (why else would you be here reading this?) I strongly recommend you install and set it up. It’s so easy to add your own library if it’s not even yet.

Bookriot

I’m subbed to Bookriot on Facebook, and they write a lot of interesting articles including lists of recommended books for whatever mood or theme, which I like.

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