Calling all bookworms! We know the web is a bit crowded these days with social networks and publishers, but discovering new sites catered to book lovers never gets old. Whether you’re looking to swap books
, discover new reads or connect with other bookworms, here are our favorite sites for all things literature.
Goodreads
Goodreads is perhaps the most popular social network for bookworms. It allows you to connect with friends, comment, chat and review books
. You can also add books to your “want to read” list and catalog books you’ve read. It’s a real rabbit hole of literature and definitely addicting if you have an endless “want to read” list, but there are worse addictions, right?
Brain Pickings
Brain Pickings is one of our favorite sites for discovering new books
, excerpts, poetry
, and often obscure literature through the insight of its founder, Maria Popova. Popova, an avid reader and devout bookworm, curates a wide variety of literature, essays, poetry, and even children’s books providing insightful discussions on each piece. Popova dissects and summarizes literature in a way that is not only comprehensive and succinct, but leaves the reader just short of an existential crisis (in all the right ways). It other words, true to its name, Brain Pickings gets you thinking; picking your brain in the most beautiful way imaginable.
Paperback Swap
Paperback Swap is a social community that allows members to trade books for free. The site touts five million-plus titles and members can simply request a swap, pay the postage, and get their books for free!
Book Lamp
Book Lamp curates and recommends new books based on your preferences. You can select type of literature, writing style, description, dialog and even pace using their comparison engine, powered by the Book Genome Project. Book Lamp is currently the most precise way to find books catered to your reading preferences.
Readups
Readups is another social community and is essentially an online book club, where users can read public domain books online together and share on Twitter. This interactive community allows you to connect with other book lovers, chat, bookmark, annotate, and comment. While we prefer getting off our laptops and touching the pages of a bonafide paperback, this community is great for people who want to connect and discover new reads.
