Discovering New Books: HonestFew, A Platform To Expand Your Reading

The business of books is not an easy one to be in nowadays, electronic or physical formats notwithstanding. Figures released in November y the American Association of Publishers showed sale of paperback books grew 8.8 percent in the first six months of 2016, compared with the first half of 2015. The sale of hardcover books went up by 0.9 percent in the same time too.

However, the overall sale of printed books fell by 3.4 percent in the first half of 2016 when compared with the same time period in 2014. Also, compared to the January to June period of 2015, sale of electronic books plummeted by 20 percent in the first six months of 2016.

But irrespective of how the publishing industry is doing, the pleasure of reading — for those who enjoy it — remains unsullied. The only occasional concern is, how to discover new books?

A recently launched platform called HonestFew may be of help. It allows readers to find new titles and to read the e-books for free. On its website, you are presented with a large selection of titles but you don’t see the names of either the books or the authors. What you do see are some hashtags that give you an idea of the genre, and one sentence (by the writer) that is a concise descriptor of the book’s contents.

The books on HonestFew are selected from indie writers, independent publishing houses and Amazon bestselling authors. It negotiates with publishers and creators, so readers can choose to either share the books with others to receive free promotional copies, or they support the authors by paying for the books.

In a statement to International Business Times, HonestFew said it wants to “to make sure that everyone has the right to read, imagine, and dream with loved ones this holiday season, making this winter just a little warmer.”

With the holiday season upon us, if you want to snuggle up with a new book but are not sure what to read, go find something new.