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Alibris    http://www.alibris.com/

A large online bookstore that sells mainly used books.  Also has UK and library divisions. 

 

Amazon.com       http://www.amazon.com     

Online bookstore, for searching books currently in print. If you scroll down on an individual book page, there is often a list of all the available editions of a title, which is helpful for finding out if a book exists as an audiobook or an ebook.

 

Bibliofind     http://www.bibliofind.com/

Amazon's search for finding out-of-print or rare books. 

 

Bookfinder       http://www.bookfinder.com/

Searches a variety of bookselling sites to help you find the cheapest copy of a book.  Provides a lot of search options, including ISBN.  Based in Berkeley, CA and Düsseldorf, Germany, the search includes textbooks, used and rare books, and new books.  Read more about them here.  

 

British Library Catalogues.       http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelprestype/catblhold/all/allcat.html

This page links to the major online catalogues from the British Library. 

 

Library of Congress catalogs        http://catalog.loc.gov/

Search the catalogs of the Library of Congress.  This is also helpful for library students looking for cataloging records.

 

National Libraries   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_national_and_state_libraries

Partially edited by IFLA members and used as their official list of National Libraries, the list is arranged by country. 

 

Powell's City of Books    http://www.powells.com/s

Based in Portland, Oregon, Powell's specializes in used books, though they also carry new books. 

 

WorldCat.org       http://www.worldcat.org/

Open Web interface that patrons can use without a login, though they can set up a personal account.  You can add geographic limitations by city, state, or ZIP code (US).  Click "permalink" to share or save the record.  Libraries that use WorldCat often set the default to "libraries worldwide" but you can usually limit your search to the individual library with the drop down menu. Many National Libraries are part of WorldCat. 

 

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Adult Reading Lists 

 

NYPL Recommends      https://www.nypl.org/collections/nypl-recommendations/lists

The New York Public Library lets you choose by genre/subject and audience from a drop down menu to find recommended book lists. 

 

What's Next       http://ww2.kdl.org/libcat/whatsnext.asp  

Kent District Library's "What's Next" database gives you series books in order.  Includes adult and juvenile titles.  Searchable by author, title, series, and genre.  Click on the "printable list" to get a good permalink to share.

 

Booklust       http://www.nancypearl.com/

Nancy Pearl's site has a blog on the home page with book reviews, and a list of topics that will take you to blog posts on that topic.  

 

Fiction-L Booklists       https://listserver.cuyahogalibrary.net/scripts/wa.exe?A0=FICTION_L

Fiction-L is a long standing listserv for reader's advisory librarians.As of June 2016, Fiction_L is managed by Cuyahoga County Public Library.  Here is a collection of lists by genre, subject, type of character , setting, author and audience. Includes a "best of" section which lists the best books of previous years.    Excellent source for either reader's advisory or finding that elusive book. While the booklists are the most useful for reader's advisory, it is also possible to search the discussion list archives back to 1995.  The original  project was designed at the the Morton Grove Public Library in Illinois, and they still host the archives as well.

 

American Library Association Carnegie Medal for Fiction & Non-Fiction  http://www.ala.org/awardsgrants/carnegieadult

This award is given to the two best books -- one fiction and one non-fiction -- for adults.  The web site includes previous winners, short lists and long lists.

 

Booklist Magazine List of Awards   http://www.booklistonline.com/GeneralInfo.aspx?id=46&A

Links to the awards Booklist considers the most significant, and to their own best books of the year list.   

 

Edgar Awards   http://www.theedgars.com/nominees.html

The Edgar Allan Poe Awards, given by the Mystery Writers of America, celebrate different types of mysteries.  The Edgars database lists the awards by year and is also searchable. 

 

The Man Booker Prize  https://themanbookerprize.com/fiction

Scroll down to see the library of historical lists.

 

National Book Awards      http://www.nationalbook.org/index.html

Mouse over "awards" on the top menu to see a list of winners by date, arranged by decade.  There is also a list of all winners by category. 

 

Nebula Awards   http://www.sfwa.org/nebula-awards/

Awarded by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association, with awards in several categories.  Previous years are included on the awards page.

 

Literature Map    http://www.literature-map.com/

Not a list but a tool to help you identify other authors you might like based on an author you type in.  No information on how they make the connections, but it is entertaining and may provide some useful suggestions.   

 

100 Books Across America     https://lithub.com/100-books-across-america-fiction-and-nonfiction-for-every-state-in-the-union/

This blogger provides one fiction and one non-fiction book for each state, with annotations, along with a suggestion for the most famous book for the state.   

 

The Reading List          https://rusaupdate.org/awards/the-reading-list/

From the Reference and User Services Association of the American Library Association, this annual list is created by a committee of Reader's Advisory and Collection Development Librarians.  This is the best fiction book in each category, along with read alikes for that book and three runner up books -- an excellent resource for adults who ask for a good book.   

 

The Listen List      https://rusaupdate.org/awards/the-listen-list/   

Also from RUSA - ALA, this list gives you the 12 best audio books of the preceding year. Each one also includes 3 read-alikes. 

 

Basic Science Fiction Library     http://www.sfcenter.ku.edu/sflib.htm

From the Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction at the University of Kansas, this is a list of the classics of science fiction.  A good start or either reading or study.

 

Cozy Mystery Blog and Booklist     https://www.cozy-mystery.com/

A personal blog from a mystery reader, this site includes lists of forthcoming cozy mysteries, holiday cozy mysteries, as well as an extensive list of favorite authors.

 

 

 

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Book Reviews

 

BookPage       http://www.bookpage.com/

Many libraries subscribe to and distribute the printed version of BookPage, which features reviews, articles, and advertising.  New books are mostly featured, but there are sometimes columns focusing on a certain genre or book type.  You can go directly to the list of reviews, which have links by genre.

 

Shelf Awareness       http://www.shelf-awareness.com/

This is a newsletter for the book trade, which comes in two versions -- For Readers, and For the Book Trade.  Anyone can subscribe to the weekly newsletter, and the current and past issues are online. 

 

National Public Radio Book Reviews   http://www.npr.org/sections/book-reviews/

Book reviews from National Public Radio.  Their books page also has links to author interviews,  Click on find a book in the top menu to get a list by subject. 

 

New York Times Bestseller Lists        http://www.nytimes.com/best-sellers-books/overview.html

The web lists are compiled earlier than those published in print each Sunday. 

 

New York Times Book Review       http://topics.nytimes.com/top/features/books/bookreviews/index.html

A free, searchable collection of NYT book reviews going back to 1981.

 

Indie Bestsellers List    http://www.bookweb.org/national-indie-bestsellers

Weekly bestsellers in a variety of categories from Independent Book Sellers in the U.S.  Includes links to lists from the last five years.

 

New York Times Sunday Book Review    http://www.nytimes.com/pages/books/review/index.html

You are allowed to read only a limited number of articles for free.  A subscription, personal or from the library, gives unlimited access.

 

National Public Radio Author Interviews     https://www.npr.org/sections/author-interviews/

Interviews from a variety of NPR shows, mostly from news programs.  By date, though you can also find books using a drop down menu of genres.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Teen Booklists

 

Best Fiction for Young Adults    http://www.ala.org/yalsa/best-fiction-young-adults 

Beginning in 2011, this annual list replaces the Best Books for Young Adults lists from the Young Adult Services Division of the American Library Association (ALA/YALSA)

 

YALSA's Book Awards            http://www.ala.org/ala/yalsa/booklistsawards/booklistsbook.cfm    

Best Adult Books for Young Adults:  Alex Awards | Best YA Literature of the Year:  Printz Award  | Excellence in YA non-fiction | High interest books for reluctant readers:  Quick Picks |      Great Graphic Novels | Best Debut book:  Morris Award  | Outstanding Books for the College Bound, organized by subject categories | Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults |                   

Teens Top Ten, voted by teens in an online promotion  |  Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults  | Fabulous Films for Young Adults

 

YALSA Teen Book Finder App  http://www.ala.org/yalsa/products/teenbookfinder

Great book suggestions right in your pocket.  Available on both the app store and google play.

 

Stuff for the Teen Age       http://www.nypl.org/voices/blogs/blog-channels/sta

New York Public Library's annual list of the best books for teens.

 

Reading Rants: Out of the Ordinary Teen Book Lists       http://readingrants.org/

Written by a YA librarian and her teen team, these book reviews are in catagories with a lot of teen appeal.  Excellent source. 

 

Teen Reads       http://www.teenreads.com/

Lists by a variety of genres.

 

Booklist Magazine List of Awards   http://www.booklistonline.com/GeneralInfo.aspx?id=46&A

Links to the awards Booklist considers the most significant, and to their own best books of the year list.   

 

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Children's Reading Lists

 

 

ALA Reading Lists       http://www.udel.edu/ETL/RWN/ReadingLists.html  

This site combines grade level (preschool - grade 6) reading lists from the Reading is Fundamental program and the age appropriate lists from ALA (preschool - age 12).

 

Booklist Magazine List of Awards   http://www.booklistonline.com/GeneralInfo.aspx?id=46&A

Links to the awards Booklist considers the most significant, and to their own best books of the year list.   

 

Children's Picture Book Database       http://www.lib.muohio.edu/pictbks

Search the database for topics, concepts, or skills to locate picture books with storylines adapatable to a particular curriculum or program.  For designing literature-based lesson plans and units.  

 

CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals   https://www.carnegiegreenaway.org.uk/greenaway.php

The best book for children and the best picture book from the library association of Britain, CILIP.  The list gives all the yearly winners.

 

Cooperative Children's Book Center  http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/

A project of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, this demonstration library of children's literature provides a wide variety of booklists, including many on social subjects.  They also have information on books and censorship for teachers and librarians. 

 

Children's Book Council : Find Books  http://www.cbcbooks.org/reading-lists/          

Reading lists, theme round-ups, the ability to search by age, genre, format and theme, as well as tips for parents about choosing books.

 

Center for the Book: Kids     http://www.read.gov/kids/

From the Library of Congress (US) Center for the Book, reading lists on a variety of subjects.

 

Database of Award-Winning Children's Literature       http://www.dawcl.com/

Database allows you to create a tailored list of quality children's literature or find out if a book has won one of the 78 indexed awards. Books are indexed and can be searched using the form search or keyword search. The form search includes reader age, setting, historical period, format (such as picture book, chapter book, etc.), gender, multicultural, ethnicity of protagonist, gender of protagonist, language, publication year, author/illustrator, keyword, and award.

 

Graded Reading Lists      http://haisln.org/reading-lists.html

Houston Area Independent Schools Library Network (HAISLN) publishes a very comprehensive set of graded reading lists each year. PK - 12.

 

Teacher's Book Wizard     https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/bookwizard/

This interactive site from Scholastic allows you to search by grade or lexile level, and has a read alike feature. 

 

AR BookFinder       http://www.arbookfind.com/UserType.aspx

The program of reading and testing called Accelerated Reader is used in many schools.  They use a modified Lexile measure for a reading level, so students will often be looking for books with a very specific assigned number.  A few public libraries use AR as a subject heading in the catalog.   Many school libraries do use the cataloging designation and may have a link to the tests on their library or school web site (it would require a log in).  On this page you can search for books to find out if they are part of the AR program.  In advanced search you can search by reading level as well.  The collections tab has a variety of book lists.   For a public library client, the second step of checking the catalog is necessary.

 

King County Library System:  Tweens (8-13 years)      https://kcls.bibliocommons.com/list/share/248247619_fosterlibrarians/725527817_middle_gradetween_(ages_8-13)

KCLS has a lot of booklists linked from their Kids page, most of them as shared lists from their catalog.  Tweens are particularly challenging, so this list is helpful.

 

50 Book All Kids Should Read Before They're Twelve     https://www.commonsensemedia.org/lists/50-books-all-kids-should-read-before-theyre-12#  

 Commonsense Media provides ratings for books and movies for parents.  Their focus began with digital media and safety.  The site and the ratings lean more towards censorship than a library would, but the reviews can also be helpful for parents or children asking if a title is age appropriate or contains potentially offensive language or sexual or violent content.  One of the few sources to answer the "is this age appropriate" question. 

 

Brightly     https://www.readbrightly.com/about-brightly/

Aimed at parents, this site provides booklists by "Ages and Stages" and "Popular Topics". 

 

Outstanding Science Trade Books for K-12     https://www.nsta.org/publications/ostb/

A project of the National Science Teaching Association and the Children's Book Council, this is an annual list. 

 

Best STEM Books          https://www.nsta.org/publications/stembooks/

National Science Teaching Association also publishes this annual list

 

 

 

 

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Early Literacy

If you're working with a public library client, look on the website for "Ready, Set, Read" or "Every Child Ready to Read" or "1000 Books Before Kindergarten", all current early literacy initiatives.  The kids section may also have recommended book lists and look under events or programs for baby story time, family story time, or toddler time.  The resources below are aimed at parents, with encouragement and suggestions for how and why to read with their young children.

 

Ready, Set, Go!    https://youtu.be/XtoFX62A1L4

This video, from the Gail Borden Public Library as part of ALA's Ready, Set, Read shows engaging examples of how to work with your children to develop literacy skills.

 

Early Literacy Skills      https://youtu.be/Jxw1pfeB60M

The librarians from the Fairfax County (VA) Public Library explain the importance of early literacy skills and provide some suggestions for types of books.

 

1000 Books Before Kindergarte    http://1000booksbeforekindergarten.org/

From Upstart Book company and the 1000 Books before Kindergarten foundation, a wide variety of suggestions and information for parents

 

 

 

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Free e-books

 

Open Square from New York University Press     http://opensquare.nyupress.org

"Open Square is NYU Press’s platform for publishing and reading open access books. A browser-based reading platform, Open Square enables us to increase the impact of scholarly work by making it freely available in a digital format and to experiment with new ways of presenting scholarship and adding enhanced content to traditionally published books. Open Square features new and recently published titles as well as a growing library of classic backlist publications. NYU Press is committed to expanding our offerings in both categories"  You do have to download their app to read their EPUB format books.

 

International Children's Digital Library     http://en.childrenslibrary.org/

A variety of ebooks in many languages.  Searchable, the page also has booklists by type of book and by age level.

 

Electronic Literature Organization        http://eliterature.org/#!showcase/2 

To facilitate and promote the writing, publishing, and reading of literature in electronic media.  Includes a showcase of work.  Begun in 2006.

 

Open Library       https://openlibrary.org/

A project of the Internet Archive, this site wants to create a page for every book ever published;  a sort of mega catalog.  Part of the project includes scanning books and making them available, and they have thousands of free ebooks, including many from the 20th Century.  Authors can upload their own ebooks to the collection, and there is a wiki/contribution side to this open source project.  If there is no ebook in their collection, they link to WorldCat and to booksellers.  You can sign up or, if your library participates in the program, use your library ebook account.  Books are free to borrow from the collection.  More information on their page here.

 

Project Gutenberg      https://www.gutenberg.org/

A large collection of free ebooks, mostly classics, in a variety of formats, including Kindle. 

 

Goodreads: books with ebooks available       http://www.goodreads.com/ebooks

This list gives direct links to ebooks in a variety of formats.  Some of the links are to excerpts from the book.  Many appear to be self-published and fan fiction, but someone has recommended them. 

 

Free Downloadable eBooks       http://www.state.me.us/msl/topics/ebooksfree.htm

From the State Library of Maine.  Scroll past the instructions for those with Maine library cards to find a comprehensive list of public domain, self-published, and online stores providing ebooks. 

 

eBook Lending Libraries      http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/EBook_Lending_Libraries

his wiki page provides lists of a variety of libraries that have ebook collections.  It includes public libraries that offer fee based cards for non-residents and commercial paid lending libraries as well as sources of free ebooks.

 

Free eBooks from Microsoft Press       http://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com/ebooks

 Part of the Microsoft Academy, these free books are primarily for IT managers and programmers working in a Microsoft environment.  However, if that is what you need, this is a nice small collection. 

 

Feedbooks: Public Domain       http://www.feedbooks.com/publicdomain

Free public domain books arranged by genre and also searchable.  Mostly Classics.

 

Open Textbook Collection       http://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/

A project begun by the University of Minnesota and now including many universities, this site provides reviews of and links to freely available textbooks at the college level.  Searchable, and also organized by subject. 

 

 

See also UK Sites: Literature

Literature

E-Book Resources

 

 

 

 

 

Updated 7/3/2015  AAH

Links added 9/10/2015

Link added 1/22/2016 AAH

Link added 8/31/2017AAH

Links checked and updated 8/15/2018 AAH

Links added 1/30/2019

Added link 6/25/2019 AAH

Links added 10/22/2019 AAH

Links added 10/25/2019 AAH

Links added.  Links Checked through Children's Lists 10/29/2019 AAH

All links checked 11/5/2019 AAH