Looking For Your Next Book? There's An App For That
A great book doesn’t just land in your lap, but involves scouring the shelves at your local library or bookstore. Now, a handful of book discoverability apps aim to duplicate this book-to-nightstand pipeline.
Goodreads
The OG online community for readers, Goodreads, has a discover function on its app that lets you scroll books that its members are talking about.
Copper
The recently launched Copper, which its author-founder calls “Instagram for book lovers,” aims to be a platform that connects readers and writers through virtual events and conversation.
Tertulia
And Tertulia—which relies on artificial intelligence and online discourse to suggest titles—takes a curated approach, asking users to fill out a profile and survey before sharing daily book reccos. I downloaded Tertulia from the App Store (it’s “free” in the way all free apps are; you pay in potential data mining). After I plugged in my info, the app spat out its first five picks drawn from the Twitter feeds of notable people like model Karen Elson and author Elin Hilderbrand. The books all looked interesting, and I currently have one—Abandon Me, a book of essays by Melissa Febos—on hold at the library. The proof, of course, will be in the pages.
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Flannery Dean is a writer based in Hamilton, Ont. She’s written for The Narwhal, the Globe and Mail and The Guardian.
