Finding the perfect book is a tricky proposition. When local bookstores stocked just a few hundred new releases at a time, deciding on a book was easy. Now that readers can purchase virtually any book ever printed online with the click of a mouse, however, making a decision can quickly become an overwhelming experience. With so many to choose from, it can be next to impossible to decide which books are worth reading and which are nothing more than hype. YourNextRead thinks it can help with this problem.
Log on to the YourNextRead site and type in the name of a book you recently read. A page will immediately pop up showing the book you read, any relevant reviews, and a diagram of similar books that you might also enjoy. If you’ve already read any of the recommended books in the diagram, then you can click yay or nay on whether those books were truly comparable and whether they were good reads. Book recommendations on YourNextRead are based on votes by people like you, so the more you vote the more accurate and precise the site will be. If one of the recommended books in the diagram you’re viewing looks interesting, click on the cover to read reviews and find out more. Every page on YourNextRead contains a link to Amazon, making it easy to buy any book you’ve found through the site in just a few simple clicks.
YourNextRead offers integration with Goodreads.com, another book recommendation website, by letting users click on Goodreads links located underneath the reviews on certain pages. For anyone hoping to break out of his or her literary rut, YourNextRead is a great place to start.
Practical Uses:
- Get advice on what new book to buy
- Read multiple reviews for a single book on one page
- Vote on whether you would recommend a certain book to other readers
- Find out about interesting books you might never hear about otherwise
Insider Tips:
- Users can vote up or down on any book recommendation
- The history feature makes it easy to get back to a book you were checking out earlier
- Kindle users can buy Kindle versions of their favorite books, as well
- Fans of Goodreads can see reviews from that site without clicking away from YourNextRead
What we liked:
- YourNextRead encourages reading, which is always a good thing
- Recommendations are based on votes by real world users, not book publishers or professional reviewers
- The site helps people break out of a rut and discover new books
- Users can find out about lesser-known authors who other readers recommend
What we didn’t like:
- Individual book pages show so many reviews at once that they tend to look overwhelming and cluttered
Alternatives:
- Any New Books? – http://anynewbooks.com
- Goodreads – http://www.goodreads.com
- Shelfari – http://www.shelfari.com
Company Info:
- Privately Held
- Headquarters: United Kingdom
- Founded by: Robert Boland and Marko Dukic
- Web site: http://www.yournextread.com
Costs:
- Free
All articles are curated and personally reviewed by Dave Onkels. Dave is tech addict and has a passion for rich web applications. He has cultivated several tech startups and runs