Not sure what it is you want to read? Want to try something different? Want to explore different books but don’t know where to look? These websites should help you with ideas for books to read...
Child/Teen
Stories from the Web
An interactive website for readers aged 0-7, 7-11 and 11-14. It has stories, author information, activities, games and competitions. Children can submit stories, poems and reviews for publication online.
There are links which let you find out if your local library has a book - select 'Bournemouth' to link to our Catalogue and search for it there. If you are a member of Bournemouth Libraries you can access even more on this website by contacting your local library for a special username and password.
Our Book Crawl page lists some good websites for ideas about what and how to read with children aged under 5.
Teen/Adult
Reading Matters
Interactive Book Chooser form as well as lists of books for teenagers and children arranged by theme, author and title. Also a 'lucky dip' book choosing facility and article on the ideas behind the books.
Adult
Which Book?
A different way of choosing what to read according to your taste and mood. Specify, on sliding scales, up to four desirable qualities of a book which you'd like to read e.g. from happy to sad, from funny to serious etc. and see what the website suggests (click on go!). Or specify the kind of character, plot or geographical setting you'd like to read about. You can also search solely for audiobooks or large print books.
Click on 'Borrow' in your matches and select the South West area and then 'Bournemouth' to open up Bournemouth Libraries Catalogue where you can search to see if we have it in stock. If we do you can reserve a copy online (through the Catalogue) for a small charge.
What Should I Read Next?
Enter a book title and/or author that you like and this site will suggest what you could read next from their database of real readers favourites.
All
Ask Chris
Pages for adults and for children including pages to choose What Should I Read Next? by category. Each suggestion has accompanying short reader reviews - you can submit one too. Also links to Literature and Language websites.
Encompass Culture
A global book club from the British Council. Find books for adults, ages 12 to 18 and for children by category and sub-categories. Details of thousands of books and features such as quizzes, reviews from other websites and readers, author interviews, newsletters, discussion boards, weblogs and chat. Also lots of information and resources for reading groups.
Guardian Books Top 10s
Recent Top 10 book lists as chosen by various writers. Use the Top 10 archive to find lists by category.
Barnes and Noble Book Browser
Use this American site to search or browse through various categories (genre, location, time period, award winners and more) of this database of fiction, children's and non-fiction books for something to read. For some books you can read the first chapter online.
Love Reading
Browse by genre for featured books or search by text, author/title or format. Register to use the Like-For-Like Author tool, and to be able to read the free book extract.
There is a related site for children called Love Reading 4 Kids.
Other websites where you may get ideas for books to read
Ebony Reads
Aims to raise awareness of fiction by black authors.
ImaginAsian
Books by Asian writers in Gujarati, Urdu, Punjabi and English.
On other web pages there are links to useful websites for Book Groups, Book Reviews, Literature (Awards, Events, Author/Publisher Sites) and Reading (adults, children and e-books).
