A Great Book I've Read Because of LibraryThing...

Tell us about a great book you've read that you learned about on LT, perhaps from an LT book buddy, on a discussion thread, or while browsing someone's library...

I recently read The True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey which was sent to me by an Australian LT book buddy. While I had seen the book in the bookstore many times, and was tempted to read it (as I have read other Peter Carey novels), it was her gift and our discussions around it that made the difference. It is excellent.

Music of the Swamp, by Lewis Nordan. Go read the review on the book page, and you'll see why I jumped at the book when I saw it at a used book sale. It's everything the reviewer says.

I have an Australian LT book buddy, too, who has been urging me to read Peter Carey's books. She recommended The Woman at the Washington Zoo and Copenhagen, which were excellent.

I read An Abundance of Katherines because all the great reviews it got on LT. I had seen it in the bookstore before and not picked it up, because with all the math, it didn't really look like my kind of book! I'm so glad I picked it up after reading about it many times on LT. It was an amazing book and now in my stack of favorite young adult reads! I did get it from the library, but I will absolutely buy it soon!

lilithcat, that books sounds wonderful (and I'm already a big fan of Algonquin books who publish Ursula, Under,On Agate Hill, A Kiss for Maddalena and so many other great reads)!

This seems like another good place to plug the use of the tag "lt-inspired" for books you bought/read because of hearing about them on LT. Obviously, not all lt-inspired books are going to be fantastic, but the ones I've read so far have all been in the good-to-fantastic range.

My favorite so far has been The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.

I've got a number of books on my list to buy based on recommendations here, and I read Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl because of LT (didn't love it though).

I asked for The Book Thief for Christmas because of LT-ers but haven't started it yet.
I bought second-hand The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard, also because of LT, but am ambivalent about its merits: the 'modern classic' on the back cover is going a bit far I think. quite an old-fashioned style.

I read Tinker and Wolf Who Rules because they were suggested on LibraryThing and absolutely loved them. I had to purchase my own copy of Tinker to have for myself and hopefully will be able to get Wolf Who Rules when it comes out in paperback as well.

Other books suggested on LT that I am happy that I read are:

Uglies
The Blue Girl
I am The Messenger
Beauty

I bought a copy of The Book Thief on a work related book buying visit today.

My book allowance for the month is now sunk.

Bank Manager please note, I will not buy another book until February 1st 2007. Please don't take my plastic away.

It was all those people on LT. Blame them. Not me.

I read the Uglies trilogy by Scott Westerfeld because of LT recommendations, and I really enjoyed all three books. I have The Book Thief on my to-be-read pile because of LT and am eagerly looking forward to starting it.

I, like many others here, heard of The Book Thief on LT and it has become an all-time favourite. Other books I have read because of reviews and discussion on LT, and that I subsequently really enjoyed, are the Uglies trilogy and Twilight.

Ditto...The Book Thief was a great reward from LT

Haven't read it yet, as I only just bought it tonight, but the multitude of enthusiastic posts about The Thirteenth Tale: A Novel by Diane Setterfield encouraged me to purchase something I've been eyeing for weeks now.

I'm almost finished with The Thirteenth Tale that I saw recommended here and I'm loving it. LT is a bad thing for my TBR pile! ;o)

I also read the wonderful memoir Them by Francine du Plessix Gray because of recommendations here.

I second (third, fourth?) the Thirteenth Tale talk. I had heard about it through Amazon, but didn't think it looked like my type of book. After countless glowing reviews on LT, I thought "what's the harm in trying it out?" and borrowed it from the library. I read it and fell in love with it and of course, purchased my own copy.

I also picked up The Book Thief because of LT reviews, but haven't been able to read it yet. It was another one that I had seen before and was on the fence about. I have read others by him I am the Messenger (also recommended from LT) and really enjoyed them.

In other words, LT has been a great source for finding out about new books I might not have picked up, as well as made my Amazon wish list mighty long. :)

I ordered, bought and read The Logogryph because it showed up on the shortlist for last year's Impac/Dublin prize and because I recognized the author's name from a previous book AND because someone declared enthusiastically, in the Prizes Group, that it was a favorite book.

I must also thank rebeccanyc for her enthusiastic endorsement of Half of a Yellow Sun which made me move the book to the top of the TBR pile! And to nunatak for her endorsement of Zoli.

All three of these books are at the top of my list of favorites for 2007! Many thanks!

I have also just finished reading J.G. Farrell's empire trilogy as a result of comments/recommendations here. The first volume, Troubles, is a masterpiece.

There are probably more, but that springs to mind.

And, avaland, thanks!

I'll second avaland on rebeccanyc's (and avaland's!) recommendations of Half of a Yellow Sun as my inspiration to read what is so far my favorite book of my 2007 reads. Another great one, which I finished in the past week, was Young Men and Fire by Norman Maclean. rebeccanyc was also one of the people who recommended this one (along with KromesTomes and LouisBranning).

I found Life of Pi and The God of small things, a book I meant to read, forgot about, and then refound because of this site which I also really enjoyed.

Scott Westerfield's Uglies trilogy was LT-inspired, and I really enjoyed it.

>20 cabegley:: cabegley, I, too was inspired by rebeccanyc's and avaland's recommendation. Half of a Yellow Sun was excellent. This also motivated me to read more of tne New York Times' notable fiction from 2006.

lindsacl, What are the some other books from the NY Times notable list you've enjoyed? I often disagree with their Top 10, but find interesting books in the longer Notable list.

>24 rebeccanyc:: rebeccanyc,

I'm participating in the New York Times Notable Book Challenge, with a goal to read 11 from the 2006 notable fiction list. So far I have read: Black Swan Green (touchstone not loading), The Inheritance of Loss, Suite Francaise Half of a Yellow Sun, and Old Filth.

I've enjoyed all of these to varying degrees, but I'd say Half of a Yellow Sun and Suite Francaise are my favorites so far.

I read The Yacoubian Building because of a LT mention. Specially, someone said it was a better book than The Reluctant Fundamentalist and that comment along sent me off to google to find a synopsis of the story. Intrigued, I bought a copy and the rest, as they say, is history!

I have to say Woman in White, as it was never on my TBR list. After reading the many glowing reviews by LThingers, I purchased a copy, and really loved it. I am somewhat addicted to classics, so this was a wonderful treat.

Twilight I learned about from LT. I also hope to read the other two in the trilogy soon.

The Lizard Cage, Away and A Month in the Country. I've also been inspired by LT to fill in some big gaps of the classics that I never got around to reading in years past. (Grapes of Wrath, anything by Jane Austen).

I've added many titles to my TBR list solely because of LT!

I just realized I hadn't posted anything on this thread since March. Since then I've read some other LT-inspired books: The Book Thief, The Thirteenth Tale, North and South, and The Lizard Cage come immediately to mind.

If this thread asked, "Great books that are on your TBR pile because of LibraryThing" the list would be HUGE!

Edited to add: just realized teelgee already made my "insightful" comment about TBR piles. I can certainly relate!!

I've bought a lot because of LT, but haven't gotten around to reading them yet.

Since my March posting, some of my favorite LT-inspired books have been:

The Lizard Cage by Karen Connelly
A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers by Xiaolu Guo
We Need to Talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman
The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope
When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka

There are several books that fit this thread for me, but the two that stand out are The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls and A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini.

Too many to name! I have read so many books because of LT comments and recommendations. Some of them are . .
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
The Dressmaker by Rosalie Ham
Saturday by Ian McEwan

There have been so many amazing books I read just because of the comments and recommendations of LTers, though I didn't think I'd care for some of the books because they really weren't the kind of thing I usually enjoy, and ended up absolutely loving! These include:

The Book Thief
The Road
Twilight
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell
Pride and Prejudice (yes, I confess, I hadn't read it until just this year)
The Wallflower series by Lisa Kleypas
The Artemis Fowl series
The Mallory mystery series
The Thirteenth Tale
The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher

I'm so grateful!

The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls, lots of people here reading it so I decided to look it up and read it too. Glad I did beacuse it was a great read.

The Kite Runner was another. Heard lots of great things before hand but LT tipped the scales and I finally gave the book a chance.

March is another, the cover never inspired me to even pick it up in the bookshop! But another LT'er in the weekly 'what are you reading?' thread mentioned it and that it was connected to Little Women - a favourite of mine! I had to read it then!

I've read enjoyed several from LT reviews; Devil in the White City, Pillars of the earth, and the hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Based upon LT reviews I am also going to give Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norrell and second try!

Good LT suggestion - The Historian

Disappointing LT suggestion - Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell

Neither qualify to me as great books. Good books though.

Lamb; The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
and
Middlesex

I liked the former more than the latter, FWIW. For the most part, my reading habits have not changed due to LT, I just document more.

In my case, it's more about the book recommendations I've received from LT users in other "places." Once I started using LT, I became acquainted with other LT users who also blog, do online reading groups and participate in reading challenges. Through these connections, I have found all sorts of books that I wanted to read. Without LT, I may not have found this wonderful community of book readers, and I am very grateful that I have!

Some books that I discovered (and enjoyed) this year through my online connections:

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore
Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky