Reader's Guide

Overview

Over 325,000 books are published in the United States every year (and the number keeps climbing). Choosing which of those books you're going to read can be anything but simple.

Visit our boards on Pinterest for library-related lists full of whimsy and wisdom, including suggestions for your next favorite book, movie, or musical artist. Pins for library materials direct you to our catalog, which makes requesting easy and simple. Newburyport Public Library

To help you, we’ve gathered some resources aimed at guiding readers & book clubs to their next favorite book.

Bestsellers Lists

Want to keep up with the most talked about books? Inform your book choice by perusing these Bestsellers lists.
NY Times Bestseller Lists
Powell's Books Bestseller Lists
USA Today's Bestseller List
NPR Books
The Washington Post Bestsellers List

Customized Book List for Adults @ NPL

If you are wondering which book to read next, or if you are looking to expand your literary horizons, please fill out our customized book list form and deliver it to the Reference Desk. Our Reference Librarians will scour the shelves to find between 5 and 10 suggestions for your reading enjoyment.

NoveList

Need a little help deciding on what your next read is going to be? With over 150,000 fiction titles, and more than 4,000 custom created articles and lists (subject guides, award winners, Readalikes, etc.), NoveList can help connect you with great reads.

NoveList for fiction Your one-stop shop for everything fiction.
NoveList Plus Your one-stop shop for everything non-fiction and fiction (for NPL library card holders only).

Award Winners

When you’re short on time, long on desire, and willing to read only the best.

Amazon's List of Award Winners
Barnes & Noble Directory of Award Winners
American Library Association's Stonewall Book Award
Lambda Literary Foundation Award
Man Booker Prize
National Book Critics Circle
National Book Foundation

Nobel Prize in Literature
Pen-Faulkner Award for Fiction
Pulitzer Prize Winners
Romance Writers of America
Fantasy Book Awards
American Library Association Book, Print & Media Awards

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Listen to Books

You can listen to your NPL and MVLC audio books many different ways. We offer audio books on CD, Playaways (MP3 players with a preloaded audio book title), and access to Overdrive, a collection of digitally downloadable audio books for your PC, Mac, or mobile device. Use the online catalog to see the NPL and MVLC collection of audio books. Use Overdrive just like a regular library – if a book is available, you can check it out and download it from home.

eBooks for your eReader

Download free ebooks to your eReader and other mobile devices. Access our ebook collection through Overdrive. More Overdrive titles are available through the Boston Public Library to any Massachusetts resident with a BPL eCard.

Large Print Books

The Library has a collection of large print fiction and non–fiction books located on the first floor in the Reading Room.

Book Clubs @ NPL

Novel Ideas

The Library’s fiction book club for adults meets on one Tuesday evening at 7:00pm each month and welcomes new members. Meeting dates and book selections can be found on our event calendar. Please contact our Reference staff for help requesting any of the titles.

Just the Facts

The nonfiction book club for adults meets one Wednesday evening at 7:00pm each month and new members are always welcome. Meeting dates and book selections can be found on our event calendar. Please contact our Reference staff for help requesting any of the titles.

Book Bites: A Cookbook Book Group

If you love cooking, enjoy talking about food and always have your nose in a cookbook, then this book group is for you! The group meets monthly on the first Monday of the month. Participants are asked to bring a dish to share from that month’s cookbook. Meeting dates and book selections can be found on our event calendar.

Please contact our Reference staff at 978-465-4428 x242 for help requesting any of the cookbook titles. Registration is required and space is limited. This book group cannot accommodate drop-ins. Please register using the link provided on the group description located on our event calendar

Find answers to frequently asked questions.

Book Club and Author Info

Books clubs have special needs. We need to know our books are discussable. We need to know our club choices won’t tank. We need to know more. Well, here’s more. These resources were selected for their uniqueness, thoughtful features, and in some cases, rank popularity. Go forth and book club.

Book Browse Reading guide questions and more.
Reading Group Guides An online community for book groups, including questions for discussion.
Nancy Pearl’s Book Lust The world’s most famous librarian has a wiki (a type of community space) that’s aimed at giving book clubbers and readers a place to dish about what they’re reading.
Reader’s Circle Aside from being an international book club list and extensive awards and review source, the Reader’s Circle also offers book clubs a way to schedule author phone chats for their meetings. A site worth seeing.
Book Group Buzz The free features (there are some paid features) make this a worthwhile stop on your book club tour.
Oprah’s Book Club Oprah loves a good read. Here are her choices.

Newburyport Literary Festival

Newburyport Literary Festival The Newburyport Literary Festival is an exciting two-day spring festival celebrating reading, writing, and the love of books. The festival features more than 50 writers of distinguished fiction and non–fiction, including short story writers, children's authors, biographers, nature writers, critics, screenwriters, poets, novelists, and journalists who read and discuss their work in venues throughout Newburyport's historic downtown.

Other Library Catalogs

Boston Public Library All residents of Massachusetts may get a BPL card.
Boston Public Library eCards A Boston Public Library eCard is a virtual library card that allows you to instantly use all of BPL’s online resources including eBooks.
NOBLE North of Boston Library Exchange (a nearby group of libraries).
Commonwealth Catalog (catch all of the Massachusetts libraries in this catalog).
LibraryThing It’s alive!!! Part library catalog, part blog, all genius – LibraryThing is a way to catalog your home library (making it searchable with tags), to get book recommendations, or to riff on your favorite authors.