On Reading: Flashlight Worthy Book Recommendations

My name is Peter, and Jennifer was kind enough to let me to contribute to her regular “On Reading” series. I run the website Flashlight Worthy Book Recommendations along with my friend Eric.

Some of you may have run across my site, but for those who haven’t, Flashlight Worthy is:

Hundreds of book lists (373 as of this writing and I try to add a new one every other day)…

Each list is usually between 5 books and 15 books…

Each list on a particular theme (more on that later)…

And each book on the list has a short description of why it’s so good (not a plot summary).

Did I mention that the books we recommend are so good, they keep you up past your bedtime? 😉

Now that we have that out of the way, I can explain why I’m so excited that Jennifer so graciously invited me to contribute to On Reading: quite simply, I need your help.

You see, Flashlight Worthy has dozens of great book lists. I have 12 of the Best Of Steampunk> (Yes. Steampunk. Have you ever even heard of Steampunk? Who knew?) and Children’s Books that Grownups Will Love. Not to mention Chick Lit Before There Was Chick Lit and this useful list of Books On Madness.

But some of the genres I offer, such as Books for Young Adults and Book Club books, are in need of more book lists. That’s where you come in.

If you’re reading this blog then I’ll bet you’re an avid reader, you have great taste in books, and quite possibly, you’re in a book club. This makes you the perfect person to share a list of some of the best books your club has enjoyed. The list just needs to follow these three simple guidelines:

1. First (and this almost goes without saying) the books should be appropriate for book clubs. That means books that are discussable.
2. Just as important — the books all have to be flashlight worthy. In other words, they gotta be really, really good.
3. The books should follow a theme. And no, “6 Books that My Book Club Really Liked Last Year” is not a theme. 🙂 Some random ideas off the top of my head? “Memoirs of Strong Women,” “Books That’ll Make you Hungry” (food books!), or “Controversial YA Books Parents Should Read More Closely.”

Like I said, those are just some ideas off the top of my head… if you want to run with one of them, great! Or feel free to suggest your own. Browse your bookcase — you’ll be surprised at how many ideas will leap out. Look back over the books your club has read. Maybe take a look at my existing lists of Book Club books for inspiration.

But once you have an idea, I’d love to publish your list… bringing you and your book club fame, fortune and endless cookies for the meetings. Okay, well, I can at least promise that I’ll add it to my Book Club books category and maybe that will bring a modicum of attention. Just drop me a line at [email protected] and we’ll take it from there.

And if Jennifer is kind enough to have me back some day, for my next post I’ll describe exactly how you can tell a book is Flashlight Worthy. 🙂