I go by the Nobel prize website, 1000 books you should read before you die and word-of-mouth.

So many places, including RP! Bookmarks magazine (my adult version of the Sears Christmas catalog), Audiofile magazine, the New York Times Book Review, the Washington Post, Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble. I'm not so much looking for recommendations but rather reviews and mentions of books.

If you go on the Amazon.com site and search for the name of a book you like, it will recommend other similar books and you can spend a long time just reading about all the books you might like to read.

Oops, I thought of another one. Book blogs have led me to quite a few books that I would not have found otherwise. If you start with one book blog it will take you to many others and before long you won't even have time to read a book. That is not a good thing. One of my favorites is Shelf Love and others are listed on the blog roll on that site.

Here is a link that might be useful: Shelf Love

BookTV, especially for History books and other non-fiction
Friends and family
Radio programs
Walking around Barnes and Noble
Vacation stops at local bookstores.
Amazon
People I meet at places like Quilt Guild, Internet forums, on vacation.
Goodreads recommends books, but most they come up with for me have greatly disappointed me

I was at our library's fall sale yesterday, and had two books recommended to me by other patrons. I always have to smile at books that I liked, and want to shout to others to buy it. I have told some how much I liked a book, and most are glad to hear it, but I have had some look at me as though to tell me to mind my own business!

The EarlyWord site is a great place to learn about new books in all genres as well as books garnering attention in some way. Somebody here, in what seems like eons ago, posted a link to a book map which, when one typed in a book title or author, brought up not read-alikes but other books read (and presumably enjoyed) by people who read the item triggering the search. Does anyone remember what that was?

Here is a link that might be useful: EarlyWord

Bookmom - are you thinking of the literature tourist map?

Here is a link that might be useful: Literature Map

I find a lot of them here as well as on Fodor's travel site on a monthly book thread in the Lounge forum. I still belong to Literary Guild and Mystery Guild, using them mostly to request new releases from the library, and I still like to browse at the library. Also, there are a number of authors I keep track of, some to buy their new books and some to get from the library.

Thank you Donnamira! That was exactly what I remembered and it is now bookmarked.

Great suggestions! Thanks for these ideas and any others. I love to have suggestions. The worst for me is a mediocre book. If it's good, I enjoy reading it, if it's awful I have no qualms about putting it aside, but if it's mediocre, I plow on through to the end and then say "meh". Life's too short for "meh" books when there are so many good books out there.

dedtired - I agree with you on "meh" books and am working my way through one right now. It's by one of my favorite authors, so hate to give it up. I am hoping for a moment of blinding truth that will make it worthwhile. The saving grace is that it is well written, with good characters. As always, he does "get" his characters, and the device he is using in the storytelling is clever and well done. So there is value in the book.

I am well into A Trick of the Light by Louise Penny. They are back in Three Pines with another murder and more eploration of the characters. I do like her books.

I sometimes almost dread hearing about new books which might interest me. There never seems to be enough time to read all the books you want to. You could read for a life-time and still barely scratch the surface.

I use Wikipedia fairly often for information about authors. I know it can be inaccurate, but for me the website can be good place to find basic information about writers and their books.

I get a newsletter from sykm. I cannot always get the books from the library system but buy them from Book Depository if I am that keen!
I have been trying to post this several times but got an Error message about someone trying to corrupt this site. Anyone else have problems?

I pick up most of my new book recommendations from the weekend newspapers and some from various things on the BBC, especially the progs which deal with older/forgotten reads. Of course trying to order recent publications from our financially strapped library system is not easy, even with repeated suggestions from me!

Right here !!

Yes, this is an amazing resource.

I just got Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively from my library (they had to get a copy from another library). It was recommended on the NPR web site. It also got 4.5 stars from Amazon, so it looks like a winner. Don't know how I missed it for the past 14 years.

For me it is a mix between here, Amazon, and browsing bricks-and-mortar bookstores. I also read books based on my book club lists, but I'm getting a bit frustrated there. I've come across a few I've loved, but so many of our choices leave me cold that I am reconsidering just how much value I am getting from the club. The socialization is enjoyable, of course. I think I'll give it a few more months before making a decision there.

Rosefolly

I'm a lot like Timallen - I almost dread reading about new books as my TPR pile is so enormous right now...!

For reccies, I come here, I visit various bloggers, and I read the book section on the New Yorker website... All good places to find a wide variety of titles.