Great Websites for Readers

by Mike O’Mary

One of the great things about being a writer in this day and age is all of the great resources we have online and elsewhere – many of them free.

There’s the Writer’s Digest 101 Best Websites for Writers, a list that includes Freelance-Zone.com. And then almost every writing website you visit also has a blogroll or list of recommended sites.

Plus there are still traditional resources around, like local writing groups and the public library. (In fact, I was at the public library earlier today. I had to go in to pay a fine for late movie DVDs. I looked around while I was there though. They still have lots of books.)

If you’re a writer, you’re probably familiar with many of the online resources that are available to you. But what about your readers? What resources are available to them on the Internet?

My favorite these days is Goodreads.com. From what I’ve seen, the commercial aspects of the site are very low-key, and the content is mostly driven by the users, who are all book lovers. And despite having 5.5 million members (membership is free, by the way), it still has an intimate feel to it, probably because so many readers are sharing their opinions on books, and because it’s a place where authors and readers can interact.

Other great websites for readers include LibraryThing.com, BookJetty.com and BookGlutton.com, and for Kindle fans, there’s KindleNationDaily.com, KindleBoards.com and BookLending.com.

I also feel compelled to mention BookCoverArchive.com, which is a website of great book covers that will be appreciated by all types of book lovers, including readers, writers and graphic designers. (Shown with this blog post are three covers from the “shadow box”series of covers for Vladimir Nabokov’s books.)

What about you? What websites would you recommend for readers?
nabakov the_stories_of_vladimir_nabokov_thumb  nabakov pale_fire_thumb transparent_things_thumbMike O’Mary is founder of Dream of Things, a book publisher and online book store, and of the Note Project, a campaign to make the world a million times better by inspiring 1 million people to share notes of appreciation.