Algorithms can work against us when someone is pulling the strings behind the curtain. I think our reading lives— or better said, the use of our time— is too important to leave to algorithms. 

One way to fight this is to be intentional about the use of our time, do the research and only read what is beneficial. 

Another option is to make the algorithms work for you. 

My top pick for a resource to use algorithms to find personalized book recommendations is The StoryGraph and the most important factor is to tailor your input to get the best results.  

Besides The StoryGraph, I’ve listed what I like and don’t like about websites that use algorithms to recommend books.

According to Bookriot, “if you’re someone who is only interested in keeping up with the newest bestsellers, Goodreads is great. However, if you’re more interested in finding specific books that you know you’ll love, Storygraph is by far the better option.”

I agree.

What I Like about The StoryGraph

Content warnings.

This is huge for me. They are reader submitted, with three levels–graphic, moderate and minor. There’s also a place for author submitted content warnings. 

The different moods of a book are rated– such as reflective, sad, emotional or inspiring. This is wonderful info to have about a book.

It’s nice to know about the pace of a book, whether it’s slow moving or fast moving.

Information about character and plot. Are the characters likable? flawed? Was the ending sad?

It has short ratings and full reviews.

It’s not associated with Amazon or Goodreads.

You can transfer Goodreads data over to your StoryGraph account.

Possibilities for good recommendations is higher, in my opinion, especially for fiction. When you’re reading to escape or relax, different factors are important than when you’re reading to learn.

What I Don’t Like about The StoryGraph

It has a 5 star rating system, although half stars and even quarters stars are an option. 

What I Like about Readgeek

It has 10 point rating system with half point options. It’s quick to rate, with an easy slide scale.

Lovers also liked list for each book. 

Personal predicted rating is interesting. 

What I don’t Like about Readgeek

Most of their recommendations don’t feel like a good fit for me. Maybe I don’t have enough data in with 73 books rated or maybe I wasn’t strategic enough about the books I chose. 

Readgeek has a beta after the name, which could mean that bugs and glitches are still being worked out.

What I Like about Goodreads

Readers also enjoyed feature for each book.

More readers are on Goodreads

What I Don’t Like about Goodreads

5 star rating system with no half stars.

It’s owned by Amazon, which has it’s pros and cons

What I Like about Literature Map

It’s so cool!

Put in a favorite authors’ name and then watch the other names circle around. It’s just plain fun to watch. 🙂

Finding a new favorite author can be more valuable than finding a new favorite book. 

What I Like about Amazon

It’s people also bought feature.

Amazon Best Seller Ranking, so you can see how well the book is selling.

Author Bios.

Reader reviews, specifically how high the books are rated and what people have to say about them. 

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The bottom line is that the more precise information you feed your algorithm, the better it will work for you. Mixing more than one person’s preference will mess with the results.

Another good strategy for finding books you love is nailing down your favorite book genre. Read my step by step here.

Have you ever found yourself at the end of summer with regrets? The projects you wanted to do unfinished or wrapping up vacation just as tired as when you left? What can you do at the front end to insure you have the best summer ever? 

1. Acknowledge Your  Season

Parents of young children are going to have different summers than empty nesters. Caring for family members with a serious health issue changes everything. You could be in a healing season or  a grieving season or maybe growing, recovering or surviving.  Extend grace to yourself if you’re currently in a season that is less productive.

2. Define Your Roles  

Steven Covey, in his classic Seven Habits of Highly Effective People recommends organizing your life based on your roles. For example, employee, parent, daughter, spouse, self. Each role then has it’s goals and priorities. 

3. Make your Summer Smaller

Break your summer up into sections. This is advice from Kendra Adachi author of The Lazy Genius Way. Don’t look at the summer as a whole, but in pieces. Like from now till the wedding. From the wedding till vacation. From vacation till school starts again. 

Each section can be treated as a separate unit. 

4. Decide What Matters for Each Section

More advice from Kendra Adachi.

You get to decide what matters for you. 

Start with what could matter. Make a list of everything. 

From that list you decide what does matter.

Pray for wisdom. This is my added step, but one that I’ve come to believe in. God promises to give us wisdom when we ask. Believe that He has given it and make your best decisions. 

Finally, choose what matters most. 

When you focus on what matters most you deliberately choose what will be neglected. 

5. Include Rest and Refreshment in One Section of the Summer

Maybe that will be on vacation or maybe it won’t. Maybe the highest priority on vacation should be quality time as a couple. Or reconnecting with extended family. Or teaching the kids to camp. Or investing in friendships. 

Maybe your season in the summer for rest and refreshment will be the section after vacation. Or even after summer is over. Maybe your work is seasonal and summer is your busiest season, meaning the money you make in the summer finances a January vacation. 

6. Incorporate Reading to Learn, Escape, Reduce Stress or Connect

You knew I was going to say it, didn’t you? I believe in summer reading for a multitude of reasons. 

Yes, it’s great to sit by the pool and read. It’s great to pop in an audio book for road trips. Or read books as a deep dive in a new area of interest. Sometimes summer opens up pockets of time that aren’t available any other time of year. Lean into it!

7. Assign Resources to Priorities

After you’ve named what matters, schedule your time, money and other resources (like employees, kids or volunteers) to your priorities. Budget your time the way you budget your money, making the biggest allocations to the highest priorities. 

8. Execute the Plan

Now it’s time to pull it off. Don’t be afraid to pivot if things go awry. Naming what matters helps you follow the compass. When you veer off course, you can regroup, adjust and head back again in the right direction. 

One of the biggest problems for me is learning to flex not to hold too tightly to plans and adjust to things that come up. Counterintuitively, the better I plan, the easier I find it is to pivot.

If part of your summer strategy includes vacation reading, find out How to Build a Vacation Book Stack.

The bestseller game is surrounded by myths and misconceptions. Understanding how it actually works can help you be realistic about the goals for your book.

What is true about the bestseller game? The big lists don’t accurately reflect book sales, lists are made of books that sold a lot of copies in a short amount of time, authors need to do their own promotion, self published books can sell a lot of copies, not every best written book becomes a bestseller and stacks of books in a store don’t always indicate a best seller.

The NYT Bestseller List does not accurately reflect book sales

The most misunderstood aspect of bestseller lists is that they are not lists of books that actually sold the most copies. How can this be? One reason is that it’s hard to get accurate data of how many books actually sold.

Nielson BookScan, a independent company that tracks book sales, only is able to collect about 75-85% percent of all sales. They don’t track sales from stores like Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club and self published books. Some lists, like the Wall Street Journal list, are based on this information.

The New York Times bestseller list, on the other hand, is based on sales reports from hand picked retailers. What’s wrong with this picture? Obviously, your results will be skewed.

Tim Grahl, a book launch expert, explains it all in his article The Truth Behind Bestseller Lists. 

You need a lot of books in a short amount of time to hit the big lists

Timing of a book launch matters. In order to hit one of the big lists, you have to sell a large number of books in a short amount of time. How large is large? 5000 to 20,000. How short is short? One week to one month, depending on whether you’re shooting for a weekly list or monthly list. 

The thing about a book launch is that all the pre-orders for the book count on the release date of the book, so they all are counted in the same week. If pre-orders plus sales during the week of release are high enough, your book could hit a list. 

That’s one reason why pre-orders are so important. 

Another reason is that it tells publishers, distributors and retailers how much interest there is in a book before the release. The whole machine works better if there’s clues to how well the book will do. 

Authors will have to do their own promotion

A common myth believed by aspiring authors is that once they sign a contract with a publisher, the publisher will do all the book promotion for them. 

The reality is that the traditional publishers do little to promote emerging authors and are looking for authors who already have a following. 

Another reality is that name recognition matters. It doesn’t even matter why, as celebrity memoirs will attest.

One of the slower ways to build a name for yourself is to write. The bottom line is if you want to sell books, you have to become known. Somehow, you need to build a platform so that people can get to know you and your work. 

The good news is, that living authors are more connected to their readers than ever before. There are channels available today that make it possible for readers to connect with authors. 

The other sad truth is that readers will not automatically find the authors they want, the algorithms will push the acceptable books and the demands of life just doesn’t leave readers enough time to do the leg work to find the right books for them.  

Can a self-published book become a best seller?

Getting an agent and pitching your book to a traditional publisher used to be the only way to sell a lot of books. That’s not true today. Self publishing and independent publishers are changing the game. Take the case of Hal Elrod and The Miracle Morning. He’s sold two million copies of his self published book. Now there’s no doubt that he’s good at marketing, that he’s passionate about his message and he’s driven to get it out into the world. But, the point is that he did it without a publisher. 

There’s a way to see how well a book is selling if it’s listed on Amazon. Dave Chesson of Kindleprenuer has developed a sales calculator based on the Amazon’s best sellers rank.

If you write a best seller, it will become a best seller

First of all, best selling books are not the best written books, nor the best books at all. They’ve just sold a lot of copies in a short amount of time and hit a list. Getting on a list gets attention. That makes them well-known and gives them credibility so they sell more copies. 

Book sales are not based on the quality of your work. Sad, but true. 

Stacks of books in a store doesn’t equal sales or popularity

It’s easy to (wrongly) assume when you see large stacks of a title in a store that’s an indication that it’s popular or selling a lot of copies. That might be true. But, it might not. I know this from my own experience as a book seller. The truth is, book sellers can return big stacks of books that sat in their store but didn’t sell. 

Of course, someone ordered them to begin with because someone thought they would sell. But just because they disappear doesn’t mean they’ve been sold. 

Another lesson learned from inventory is that some types of books sell better than others. Avid fiction readers often don’t have the budget to keep up with their reading habits. Libraries fit the bill better for them than bookstores. 

Some books, like devotionals, non-fiction books that you want to study, write in and mark up and gift books actually sell multiple copies. Books used in classes or Bible studies sell in bulk. If you want to sell a lot of copies, write those books.

10 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Buy Bestsellers

Why is is important that parents read to their children?

Academic reasons

There are so many great academic reasons to read to kids.  

Studies show that reading to kids builds their vocabulary. One reason for this is that high quality picture books uses a richer and more varied vocabulary than conversation. So kids encounter words and concepts in books that they would not ordinarily hear. They also hear them in context and absorb the meanings of words without being taught them directly. 

A larger vocabulary is linked to academic success. In fact, most standard IQ tests, which were originally created to predict academic success, revolve around testing how much vocabulary a child knows. 

Reading to kids also helps them gain a greater understanding of how language works— correct grammar will sound right, even if they can’t articulate any grammatical rules. 

Finally, reading to kids, if it’s a positive experience teaches kids to love books, to love stories and to share stories with the people you love. 

Emotional reasons

I admit it. Footie pajamas and a damp, cuddly kid listening to a bedtime story ranks among my favorite pleasures in the world. 

I  had an epiphany a while back that maybe one reason why reading to children is such a bonding experience is that it recreates the intimacy of a mother nursing her baby. Lap sitting or an engrossed child pressed up against an adult reading a story is an emotionally close experience. 

It also communicate love and safety. 

It quiets a child who has been playing hard before nap or bedtime. 

It also creates shared memories between the generations. 

Spiritual reasons

Studies show that one of the best ways to teach empathy to children is to read to them. Relating to a character in a story helps them to feel compassion to someone less fornunate than themselves. 

Besides empathy, there’s other values and virtues that are taught through good books. 

It’s also a great way to teach your children the foundations of the faith that you want to pass on to them. 

Why is important for parents to read to their kids? There’s academic, emotional and spiritual benefits.

How much should parents read to their child? 

Ten minutes every other day

Sarah Mackenzie from the Read Aloud Revival says 10 minutes a day every other day adds up to 30 hours of reading in a year.

Ten minutes feels doable. Even on the busiest days, there’s usually a way to squeeze in 10 minutes of reading.

Even on the busiest days, it’s often possible to squeeze in 10 minutes for reading. 

And 30 hours a year is significant. You can get through a lot of books in 30 hours.  

As long as it enjoyable to parent and child

This is the time when the magic of the Venn Diagram comes into play. Remember the Venn Diagram? The key is in the overlap. Make the effort to find books that you enjoy and the ones that they enjoy.  As much as possible, ignore everything that doesn’t fit in that overlap. 

If you don’t look forward to reading to them, if it becomes a chore, then you’ll start avoiding it. Make it fun for you. Make it fun for them.

How much should parents read to their kids?

1. Ten minutes every other day
2. As long as it’s enjoyable for both parties

When should a parent start reading to their child?

It’s (almost) never too early and it’s (almost) never too late. 

You can definitely read to a baby in utero. The sound of mom and dad’s voice is important to the baby pre-birth. 

I’ve also heard that 4 months is a good age to start. 

But, it’s kind of like the best time to plant a tree. The best time is years ago. The second best time is right now. 

Life’s too short to spend time on regrets. Start where you are today and move forward. 

If I took a road trip with my adult children now, I wouldn’t hesitate to read to them. Of course, the magic ticket is finding something that everyone in the car likes. It’s worth putting in some time and effort to find that something. Do the work and bring along several options, so you can abandon the one that you thought was a winner, but really wasn’t. 

When is a good time to read to kids? 

Before nap time and before bed time are great times if that works with your schedule and energy level. 

In the car is a great option, if you’re not the driver or play an audio book if you are. 

When school work is done. When I was home schooling, read aloud time was the favorite time of the day for teacher and students. We saved it as a reward for finishing everything else. 

What are the obstacles of parents reading to their child?

Bored with repetition

What do you do when your child wants to read the same books over and over again and you’ve had it with those books? 

Don’t forget you’re taller than they are. You can hide those books in a high place. Ha. Of course, they will remember them and keep asking for them. That’s the time for distraction. You can do the research to introduce the new books that will capture their attention. 

This is another time when the magic of the Venn Diagram comes into play. The books that you enjoy and the ones that they enjoy.  As much as possible, ignore everything that doesn’t fit in that overlap. 

Too tired to read

When my grandkids started coming to Grandma’s for sleepovers, I looked forward to reading them bedtime stories. I underestimated how tired I would be at the end of the day. I was ready for bed before they were. Sometimes I pushed through and read anyway— just one book, but sometimes I gave up. 

Kids wear you out. It’s a real thing. 

What can you do? 

Make reading before nap time a ritual instead of before bedtime. 

Put on an audio story at bedtime.

Put the kids to bed earlier.

Keep working on your health— diet, exercise, rest— to have more energy. 

Eliminate lesser priorities from your schedule for now. Concentrate on the most important. This is important. 

Lack of information about good books and books that push agendas

I’ve written about the absence of content rating for books. See my post Why don’t books have ratings like movies? 

Unfortunately, there are children’s books with hidden agendas. It’s not always obvious going in which books they are and what the agenda is. 

You will have to do some homework if you are concerned about what your child is reading. It might be just finding trustworthy book lists, like the ones at Read Aloud Revival. Redeemed Reader book reviews is another good resource.