My most satisfying reads come as recommendations from friends and their book clubs.
As a supplement to the book pointers from friends, this website is one I’ve been checking out when there’s an open space in my reading queue. A recent feature is a massive book list, the result of asking 9,000+ authors to recommend their favorite reads of the year.
Reviewing the entire list, I can vouch for its quality. On it, are many titles and authors I’ve read and enjoy.
Ben Fox is the builder behind Shepherd (a non-religious book-finding website).
When describing books, Fox quotes Carl Sagan’s Cosmos, “What an astonishing thing a book is. It’s a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you’re inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly and silently inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic.”
“When I look for a new book online, it feels soulless,” Fox says. “Online bookstores sell books like toothpaste or powdered gravy mix. Something about that is profoundly wrong.”
About his website, Fox says, “We give readers fun and unique ways to follow their curiosity down rabbit holes. Try our bookshelf on science fiction or life satisfaction. At every step, you can meet the person who recommended that book, the book list it came from, and what they are passionate about.”
As we head into gifting season, the Shepherd website is worth a visit if book lovers are on your list.
