A novel discovery

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body,” said the late British writer Sir Richard Steele. He was dead right. As well as acting as a gym for your brain, curling up with a book offers the chance to escape the stresses of everyday life. Here’s the WH guide to ferreting out literary gems beyond the neon Top 10 sign at the front of the bookshop

Your best starting point? Wander into a good bookstore and have a chinwag with the owner. Steer clear of the bigger chains and go independent for service with a touch of TLC. Any bona fide bookseller worth their weight in words is holding on to a list of gems you’ve never heard of. (Check out danny.oz.au/books for a comprehensive directory of stores around Australia and New Zealand.)

Book shops can be confronting and disorientating places. The moment you walk in you’re dazzled by colour, pictures and numbers, so it helps to front up with an idea of what you’re looking for. Having worked in bookshops for many years, Aussie book editor, writer and reviewer Jane Gleeson-White understands how personal the process of finding the right book can be. She advises picking up a few potentials, reading the first few pages and the back cover. “Ask yourself – do you like the writing style? Is the book too dense or too old-fashioned? Is it a story that appeals to you?” Trying before you buy should help steer you in the right direction.

LOOK BEYOND THE BESTSELLERS
We’ve all heard of The Slap, but how to pick from the millions of other books out there? Ask people what they’re reading. “Word of mouth remains the best way to find a good book,” says journalist and host of the ABC’s First Tuesday Book Club Jennifer Byrne. Make sure the recommendations come from people who match your taste.

“I know people with impeccable taste in reading, and you know what? It’s not mine,” Byrne says. “It doesn’t matter if it’s your friend, your chemist or your brother’s girlfriend – once you find someone with similar taste, stick to them like glue. Even if your brother breaks up with her – hang on tight!”

GET HOOKED ON THE CLASSICS
Don’t restrict yourself to contemporary novels. When Gleeson-White wrote an article on classics for Aussie magazine Good Reading, she got such an extraordinary response that she turned it into a book. The result, Classics: Books for Life, is an inspiring guide to great books of the past. “I used to work in bookshops and I’d watch these poor people stare up at the classics section in complete bewilderment, then refuse my help and walk out,” says Gleeson-White. “Classics are for everyone. People shouldn’t be scared to pick one up – they are such fantastic stories and have so much to offer.” Her tip when it comes to classics for beginners? “Jane Eyre. It’s just so readable. Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina and the great American novel, The Great Gatsby.”

REDISCOVER YOUR LOCAL LIBRARY
You may not have set foot in a library since your uni days, but libraries remain one of the most rewarding ways to unearth new books. Then there’s that delicious earthy smell of old books, the meandering down endless aisles, the nosing at what other people are reading. Byrne makes libraries her second home. “I head to the returns desk to see what everyone else is reading. Or one of those beautiful old wooden trolleys, stacked high with books to be returned to the shelves. You’ll always find something.” Plus, as Atonement proved, libraries are sexy – if you’re single, you may even stumble across a nice earnest bookish type, possibly with a foppish fringe, hiding among the paperbacks.

EXPERIMENT WITH GENRES AND STYLES
Just because you’ve never read science fiction or African-American poetry, don’t be afraid to try it.

“It can be very rewarding to try different genres – to break out, be entertained and learn something,” says Melbourne-based blogger and book reviewer, Angela Meyer. “Go for a genre award-winner like something from the annual Ned Kelly Awards for crime fiction or the Aurealis Awards for sci-fi, fantasy and horror.” And keep in mind the context you’re going to be reading in. The book you’ll want to devour in one sitting on a beach holiday is very different to a novel you’re only going to be able to dip in and out of during your daily schlep to work.

CONNECT ONLINE
From community websites like the thereadingroom.com to the latest reviews and author interviews at [theaustralian.com.au theaustralian.com.au], nytimes.com and guardian.co.uk, there’s plenty of sage reading advice online. Log on to Oprah’s Book Club (oprah.com) – with more than two million members and the power to make or break a book’s success, there’s plenty of wisdom on hand. Or tune in and sign up to the First Tuesday Book Club on the ABC (abc.net.au/tv/firsttuesday). There’s even a website called whatshouldireadnext.com, which delivers (surprise!) exactly that. You simply enter a book you like and based on other people’s book lists, it will spit out other titles you may enjoy. From there, you can register and create your own favourites list.

FIND A GOOD BLOG
There’s a huge array of literary blogs on offer, such as Meyer’s LiteraryMinded (blogs.crikey.com.au/literaryminded), which she started over three years ago as a space to post her book reviews and chart her journey as an emerging writer.

“I’ve always been passionate about introducing people to books, and matching the right books to the right people,” she says. Other book blogs we love: middlemiss.org/matilda, beattiesbookblog.blogspot.com and Pair of Ragged Claws (blogs.theaustralian.news.com.au/alr). And if you’re on Facebook or Twitter, pose a bookish question to friends and followers – just watch them all chime in with an opinion. “The next book I plan to read – a memoir-cum-travelogue called The Possessed by Elif Batuman – I heard about via a New York Times review that someone tweeted,” says Gleeson-White. “The online world is a fantastic place to have conversations about books.