How many books have you put down after ten or twenty pages? How many kept you enthralled late into the night (and your sleep app told you that your weekly sleep trends are dropping)?

There are certainly books that captivated my attention and books that I struggled with every page, sometimes reading the same page multiple times, battling to engage with the content.

But for every book that I struggled with, someone loved. There are no books that I know of that literally everyone disliked (keep in mind, there are probably some unedited indie books out there that Amazon won’t dare show to anyone else because of how bad the reviews are – let’s assume we’re talking about books that have at least gone through professional vetting).

So how do you find your next great love, when reviews clearly don’t tell the truth?

When I consider why I fell in love with a book, there are a number of things that come to mind:
1. My mood – Do I want to escape in a new world? Play detective? Explore space? Learn about other people? Essentially what genre do I want?
2. My life circumstance – Is the protagonist relatable? Do I connect with them?
3. My goals – Does the main character achieve great things? Overcome the odds? Or stay status quo? Can I get through the story quickly and move to the next? Or is it a big time investment?
4. My stress level and available time – Is the book fast-paced or a slow-burner? Does the book take off or fiddle around? Is the book full of action, description or a combination of both?

The list could go on. These are the biggest factors, which might be why I often have 3 – 4 books on the go at the same time. Note: I read 4 – 5 books a month, unless they’re Sanderson sized.

Using AI to find your next read

By plugging in to AI (Chat-GPT-4 at this point has the most recent data, so I used that) all my preferences using the following prompt, I get new books I’ve never heard of with the exact mood I want to read.

Here is the prompt. I’ll provide examples of a couple of my prompts below. Keep in mind you won’t get brand new releases, but you can easily find the beginning point of many author careers.

“Generate ten recommendations for (fiction/non-fiction) book titles that are already published in the (genre) in the last (number of years) and include the author’s name. As a reference, in this genre I enjoy (name two authors). The books should be (a best seller / highly recommended). The protagonist should be (relatable? feeling lost? feeling insignificant? on top of the world before a big fall?) and (male / female / anything you want them to be). They should (achieve great things / overcome the odds / stay consistent / any other goals you want for them). The story should be (fast/slow paced), with a (slow or fast start), and full of (action/vivid worldbuilding / action and vivid worldbuilding). If you can’t find all of these details in one book, display a list of recommendations and what they did include from this list.”

Here are a couple of prompt examples I have used and a couple of the great books it recommended.

Generate ten recommendations for fiction book titles that are already published in the fantasy genre in the last ten years and include the author’s name. As a reference, in this genre I enjoy Brandon Sanderson and George R.R. Martin. The books should be a best seller. The protagonist should start off feeling small and insignificant in the world and male. They should do something great during the story to set them apart from others and make a difference. The story should be fast paced like a thriller with a fast start and full of action and easy reading. If you can’t find all of these details in one book, display a list of recommendations and what they did include from this list.

Here are three fantastic books (I’ve heard) AI came up with (but it did come up with ten and many of them I might check out.
– The Ember Blade by Chris Wooding
– The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter
– A Time of Dread by John Gwynne

Prompt 2

Generate ten recommendations for a fiction book titles that are already published in the mystery genre in the last five and include the author’s name. As a reference, in this genre I enjoy John Grisham and Michael Connelly. The books should be highly recommended. The protagonist should be tough, maybe on the rough side, and female. She should go through personal struggles while solving the mystery. The story should be fast paced with a slower start to build up, and full of worldbuilding, possibly set in Canada. If you can’t find all of these details in one book, display a list of recommendations and what they did include from this list.

Although I don’t know these books personally, here are a few names that stood out:
– Win by Harlan Coben
– When No One is Watching by Alyssa Cole

Give it a try and have fun! There are so many good books to discover. You can also prompt AI to give you a 200 word book description with each recommendation so you have a good idea of what you’re getting into before you start reading (and with my prompts above, AI did this automatically).