What book should I read next? Ask a reader

Start from the last book you could not put down

The book you should read next looks like the last book you could not put down. Not the one you feel you ought to have read, and not whatever is top of a chart this week. Think of the last time you stayed up far too late for one more chapter, and take that book as your starting point.

Then ask yourself what it was, exactly. Usually it is not the genre. Someone who raced through The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo in three days may have fallen for a narrator confessing her whole life, and will find that again in a book shelved somewhere completely different. Someone who loved Stoner is probably after an ordinary life looked at very closely, rather than ‘a novel about a university’.

Write it down in one sentence: I liked this because. That sentence is worth more than any genre label, and you will need it in a minute.

Which book suits me? Four questions to ask yourself

Your taste is one thing, your week is another. These four questions are about your week.

What am I in the mood for? Something funny, something uncomfortable, something to disappear into. How you feel now matters more than your taste in general.
How much time and attention do I have? An eight-hundred-page doorstop suits a fortnight's holiday, not ten minutes before sleep. Short chapters help if you are interrupted all the time, on the commute or with children around.
What do I definitely not want? No violence, no dying children, no open ending. This is the question almost everybody skips, and the one that makes the biggest difference.
Familiar or new? After a heavy book the next one can be light. After five thrillers in a row, a family saga may be exactly the change you were after.

The best book of the year is not automatically the best book for this week.

How to ask for a book: three examples that work

‘Can you recommend a good book?’ gets you the other person's favourite. A question with a mood, a length and a limit gets you a book for you. It looks like this:

‘Something calm for a long train journey. No thrillers.’
‘I have just finished Where the Crawdads Sing and want another book where the landscape is almost a character. Nothing too long.’
‘I have not read anything for a year. Something under three hundred pages that pulls me back in. Gripping is fine.’

Two sentences are enough: one book you liked and one thing you do not want. Somebody can work with that. Be honest, too, about what you actually read. If you ask for literary fiction when you really want a good detective novel, you will go home with the wrong book.

Where to ask: a bookshop, the library, a reader

A bookshop. A good bookseller gets this question every day, at Waterstones and at the independents alike. Go at a quiet time, name your one book and your limit, and you will leave with something. Saying no thank you is allowed.

The library. Library staff are used to recommending, and a borrowed book that disappoints simply goes back. It costs nothing to join your local library, and many library services also lend e-books and audiobooks through apps such as Libby and BorrowBox. To find yours in England or Wales, GOV.UK has a find your local library page.

A reader. The best tips come from someone who loved the same books as you: a friend, a colleague, your book club. They know what you mean by ‘something like that’.

If you do not know anyone like that, you can ask in the Time to Read app. In Ask you write one sentence about what you are in the mood for. Readers whose shelves overlap with yours read what you wrote and each choose one book, with a reason, usually within the hour. You decide which one you want, and it goes on your shelf. When too few readers are around, the Reading Desk, the app's own editors, answers under that name, and it always says so.

The GOV.UK library finder, and Milton Keynes libraries' page on Libby and BorrowBox as one example of a library service offering both, were checked on 29 October 2026.

What a quiz or a top ten does and does not do for you

Quizzes that tell you which book to read exist in their hundreds. Most are made for fun or for teenagers: you answer a few questions about yourself and get a title from a handful of options. Sites where you type in a book you liked and get similar titles come closer, because they start from your favourite. Neither knows what you cannot face this week.

A top ten or a bestseller chart tells you what is selling now. That is useful if you want to join in the conversation. But the chart does not know that you never read thrillers. Use it as a stockroom: take the title that touches the mood you just described and leave the rest. The same goes for BookTok: a book that is everywhere is worth a look, not a duty.

If you do not enjoy reading, or have not read in years

Then it is rarely you and often the books you were handed. Choose short, with pace, about something that interests you outside books too. If you watch crime dramas, start with a crime novel. If you like true stories, try a memoir rather than a novel. An audiobook counts.

And give yourself permission to stop. Plenty of readers find that one book they finished out of duty keeps them away from reading for weeks afterwards. Give a book fifty pages. If it has not got hold of you by then, it goes back on the shelf, and you are free to pick the next one.

Ten books a day, if you would rather browse than ask

Not everyone wants to put a question into words. Some people choose best with books in front of them. In a bookshop, head for the table by the door; in the library, look at the trolley of returns, which shows what other people in your town have just read. Pick up three, read the first page of each, and take the one whose second page you wanted to read.

You can do the same on your phone. Beside Ask, Time to Read has Today's books: ten books a day, one to a page, each with a line saying why it is in front of you. Shelve the ones you want to read and skip the rest. A new ten is ready every morning.

Keep what you shelve on one list, so you never start from nothing again. Readers call that list their TBR.

Frequently asked questions

What are the books everyone should read?

There is no such list, or rather there are hundreds and they disagree. A list like that tells you which books have been influential, not which one you will enjoy this month. Use it as a stockroom: take the one title that touches something you already like reading, and leave the rest.

How do I know if a book is right for me?

From the first few pages, not from the blurb. Read the opening in the shop or the library, or a sample on your phone. If you want to keep going, it fits. If you have to talk yourself into it, it does not.

What should I read after a book I loved?

Not the same thing again straight away, because that often disappoints. Try something short in a different tone, or another book by the same author. If you do want something similar later, say exactly what you loved: the voice, the setting or the pace.

How do I get out of a reading slump?

Lower the bar. Reread a book you know works, or pick something short with plenty of momentum. An audiobook or a collection of short stories counts too. And give up on the book that has been sitting on your bedside table for weeks: quite often that one book is the slump.

Is there a quiz that tells me what to read?

There are plenty, and most are made for fun: you answer a few questions about yourself and get one title from a short list. They can be a nice nudge. None of them knows what you cannot face this week, which is the part a person can ask you about.