You could try The Storygraph. While it can also be used for tracking and challenges, it has really good recommendations in my opinion. If you want them to be based on the books you read, you need to join the plus plan, but there are other ways of discovering new books as well:

Firstly you can fill out your preferences (genre, mood, some keywords, etc.) and you'll get a list of books based on that.

Secondly you can simply pick one of the books you enjoyed and click on "Browse similar books". Often the recommendations are quite good and the platform doesn't only show the popular one's (I've had books recommended with no more than eight ratings).

I will pause on sections and think about it for a bit, if I feel I need some notes I’ll jot them in the margin. Sometimes I need to reread that section or paragraph, then make notes. I guess I just read the book twice on one reading.

It's owned by Amazon so it's essentially a marketing tool to collect, store and sell your data and push whatever the publishers have paid them to promote that month.

Hey, museum worker and professional historian here. I have led a very successful history book discussion group for almost ten years. I just want to say that it's ok to not retain everything. Seriously. There's no award at the end of life for remembering everything you read. It's sufficient that you get a "takeaway idea" from each book or maybe you just know that you found something interesting along the way. Don't stress!

If you want, maybe just keep a journal or spreadsheet with the basics of the book. If you ever think "hey, what did that author say about this topic that just came up in my life," then look the book up again.

The book discussion group also helps retain information and digest it with multiple perspectives. Check out your local library and other organizations.

I am in a similar situation and haven’t found the best way yet either. What I can recommend

• reading/watching a summary of the book to get the gist of it before reading
• listening to it and taking notes while you listen to it
• reading the actual book (digital or paper) and take notes the good old way
• use an app like Obsidian that allows you to link your notes from different books and create a network of ideas and concept

The last one is the one I’m not fully doing yet but it’s a really fascinating concept. Here’s an intro but there’s a ton on YouTube too.

https://www.keepproductive.com/blog/obsidian-beginners-guide

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Loved this book. Augusten's story telling is funny , poignant, harrowing, sometimes vulgar... I've recently bought his latest book. This is how, for my daughter, she has told me she cannot put it down, another admirer!

The recommendations seem to be based on what's currently popular with the people who have the same books you have on their shelves ... not the best way to discover hidden gens.

Yeah I’m having a hard time emotionally with American Psycho. Not surprised though. I flew through more than 100 pages Monday night and then yesterday got to the part about the homeless guy and I only read about 25 pages all day yesterday and I haven’t picked it up at all yet today.
1984 is on my list of books to read soon.

That's a valid point, so I'll just clarify what I mean.

>isn’t every move a character makes in a book written solely for the author’s need for them to do so?

Yes and no.

On the most obvious level, it absolutely is.

The problem comes when a character does or says something that they have no reason to do or say other than the author needs them to.

So, in this example, the character says something because the author needs to create tension. That's fine. But what a competent author would do is give the character a reason for saying it.

Actions should be driven from character and/or story, not just a bunch of random stuff happening because it is convenient for the author. Because not only is this bad writing, but it is contemptuous to the readers.

This is the main problem I have with this book (aside from having the stupidest plot twist in all known literature). The whole world and everyone in it only act the way they do because the author needs it. Their actions aren't derived from character and the way things work (such as everything in the mental hospital) are set up to be convenient to the author.

Sure, people are free to take liberties, but if you're going to write about something, there needs to be at least some level of plausibility, which this completely lacks.

Honestly, I was so excited for this book and am a big fan of the pulpy, twisting mystery thriller, which is probably why this was such a massive let down. It wasn't even the hype (I picked it up randomly in a second hand book store), but it was such a poor effort on any other level than needs to be twisty that I couldn't help but be appalled.

I definitely understand why you think that way and can agree about him throwing certain things in for convenience, but isn’t every move a character makes in a book written solely for the author’s need for them to do so? I’m not trying to convince you to change your opinion on the book itself, just wondering how we as the reader can say that the author is only writing the character for their needs when that’s essentially what fiction is.

I will say, in regard to my original question, that this probably was a loose end that was just left out to dry. But I think it’s fun to speculate when there’s no true answer!

I have a steel trap memory, but I will keep a phone near by to look up words i haven't seen before. I either read non fiction in the same dedicated reading time or i keep non fiction by my side when I have an inconsistent work tempo and I don't know if the break in the action will last 5 min or 2 hours.

What everyone else said. I track the books I've read, use the Book Challenge, see what other people are reading (I've gotten some interesting books that way). But I didn't even realise it could give you suggestions. Haha. Good Reads is owned by Amazon, so it's not surprising you may be getting certain suggestions.

How i read? One page at a time.

I'm glad you enjoyed it.

But there is zero attempt to make a well crafted plot. People only act the way they do because the author needs them to, which is why there are countless loose ends. The author needed something suspenseful or a red herring and just chucked something random in and, as you said, never resolved it or weaved it into the story.

So, again, glad you enjoyed it, but I don't think there is any deeper meaning behind any of it than "the author needed this to happen, so it did"

Well I respectfully disagree, I think the story was pretty compelling and while it definitely could’ve been laid-out better, it was the guy’s first book. Saying he has nothing but contempt for the readers and craft might be stretching it a bit IMO

He said it becauae the book is stupid on every level and the writer has nothing but contempt for the reader and the craft so just does whatever to make this dumpster fire of a book seem cleverer than it is.

Depending on your reading speed, hammer through the book once with no notes, nothing. Think about what you read, you'll remember the bits that interested you more. Write them down and reread the book, making notes as concepts interact with the things you were interested in.

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Will you stop ? I am jealous.

With determination

I use it to keep track of what books I've read and save books I think look interesting that I might want to read. Not much else really but I do find their shelf feature useful for organizing books in my to-read list.

I've mostly found their recommendation algorithm to be pretty useless. Though I have heard Storygraph is better on that front.

Thinking fast and slow would be considered popular science. The money book is more popular economics. So both pop non-fiction. The slight edge is more self-help. I would just create a word file (or Bear app page) and write a notes on a point that interests me. Or you can create a mind map, I do that sometimes and find it useful.

Too late, bro