Different Recommended Fiction Books
For Different Reasons

If you do a Google search for "recommended fiction books" (without the quotes), you get 6,430,000 sites. Clearly too many to search through them all.

So how do you choose where to look?

That depends on what you're looking for.


All Shapes and Sizes

Start with why you want a list of recommended fiction books. Are you simply looking for fantastic fiction for your leisure reading? Do you want to know what the boy next door likes to read? Do you want to know what your college professor recommends you read as a literature student?

Maybe you have kids in the house. You want to find a list of good fiction books for teens or a list of classic fiction books for kids.

Answering why you want a list will help you search in the right direction.

Obviously, you can start online. But there are those six-million-plus sites staring you in the face, and you still have to choose. Some are by "Joe Blow", so to speak, and I don't know about you, but I'm not going to think
a lot of someone I don't know telling me what he or she thinks are the
top 100 fiction books .

When I peeked on a few sites, I found recommendations from places like Barnes & Noble, which includes non-fiction titles in their list with the fiction. Nothing wrong with that, unless you want a list strictly of classic fiction books.

They compile their list by sales of books, so it includes only the most recent books published, for the most part. Other lists include "best of all times" collections.

Random House has a double list. One from it's board, one from readers. Since they publish books, I trust their judgment more than I'd trust a stranger.


Other Resources

One of the first places I always ask for recommended fiction books is at the library. Librarians have a vast source of knowledge about what's been published, what are considered the best fiction books for your needs, and which classics are a must-read.

Magazines and newspapers may publish fiction book review sections (though not usually 100 at a time, unless it's a annual issue devoted to that). They may be compiled by their editors, or through a poll of their readers.

Friends and family members who read books similar to ones you like can be a great resource, too. I've gotten hooked an a variety of fiction authors and their works through such recommendations.

So ask around, and you'll soon have a long list of books to try.


For Aspiring Authors

If you are an author, you may be looking for an entirely different set of recommended fiction books; books on fiction writing. I have a library of such references that help me hone my craft.

From writing dialogue to creating characters, from plotting to polishing, I have books that help me write my novels better. For accuracy in details, I also have books on such things as poisons, historic eras, murderers and other makers of mayhem (because I'm a goodie-two-shoes who needs help with bad guys!).

Your books on fiction might be quite different from mine. If you write in a genre I don't, you'll have books specific to that genre. But you'll also probably have some titles similar to the ones I have.

Depending on how much of my site you've read and whether you trust my judgment, you may or may not try using any of the writing books I suggest. That's alright, too. I tend to get titles from the library first, when at all possible, so that I don't throw too much money out the window on books that won't help me.

So, once you've figured out what kind of list you want, make your search match that need. Whether it's recommended fiction books or recommended books on the craft of novel writing, you can find plenty of resources to help you improve your writing.

Enjoy!