Fancy something unusual and unpredictable? Funny or perhaps a murder mystery? No problem. Use a unique mood and emotion search to find great books with exactly the flavor you’ve asked for. Whichbook | A new way of choosing what book to read next
A new way to choose, where the reader is in control
Searching book sites usually means keying in an author’s name or a book title. But if you know the name already, your search will likely turn up books you’ve already heard about. No surprises there.
How about if you didn’t need an author name or book title at all? What if you could start with what you, as a reader, are looking for right now? You might be in the mood for a funny read or something to make you think. Do you want an easygoing book or more of a challenge to get your teeth into?
Choosing books by mood and emotion
You can mix mood sliders into great combinations – try unpredictable, lots of sex, and optimistic, and check what comes up. Flip the slider setting from optimistic to unusual, and the books offered will be quite different.
Click on a book cover that intrigues you, and you can find out more. There’s no need to wade through long reviews or complicated plot summaries. There’s a short comment designed to convey the essence of the book, what it feels like to read. You can get a direct experience of the author’s voice in a sample paragraph. And there are a few Parallels—other books and sometimes TV shows, songs, and even paintings that have some similarities with this one.
Choosing from the world map
Spin the globe and choose a book based on the country it is set in. Click on an area—say, Africa or Europe—and then click on a specific country. You will find places—and books—you may never have known about.
Choosing by character and plot
You can choose the main character’s race, age, sexuality, and/or gender. You can also pick a favorite plot shape and discover the range of different types of readers that use it.
Starting from a familiar bestseller
You won’t find the biggest bestsellers on Whichbook, as everyone knows about them already. But you can use your enjoyment of a current bestseller to see titles with a similar mood that you might try next.
Borrow or buy
Click Borrow, and you can link directly to public library catalogs to borrow the book you have found for free. Whichbook takes you to the specific title in the catalog, so it’s easy to check which branches have it. If you’re not already a library member, go to your library homepage for information on joining.
If you are not in the UK, you will receive a link to WorldCat, the world’s largest library content and services network, which will list if any libraries in your area have a copy of the book.
You can also buy books from Amazon, Audible, BookShop, Hive, and Waterstones if you wish to own your own copy. Using the buy link will help to support Whichbook.
What you can’t do on Whichbook
You can’t search by genre—many other sites already offer this option, so Whichbook doesn’t need to. Besides, it’s fun to see how a search can bring up results across many genres. You might get tempted to try a genre you don’t like because you can see it might deliver what you have asked for!
You can’t search by author and title—the hope is that you are looking for something unexpected and serendipitous, so you don’t need to use author and title. But you can search by author—if you scroll down to the footer and click Authors, you will see all the fabulous authors listed in good old traditional alphabetical order.
You can’t give a book your own mood ratings – well, you can’t at the moment.