Suggest me Something to Read

What this tool does

This is for the in-between moment. You finished your last book, or you have a free hour, or a long train ride, and you just want something to read without a plan. You do not have a particular title in mind and you do not want to go hunting for one. So the tool hands you something, a single good read pulled at random from a hand-picked list, and the hunting is done.

Press the button for a pick. Press it again if the first one does not land. Ask for a few at once when you would rather glance over a small set than take the first thing offered. No account, no setup, just a read to get going.

How to use it

1. Number / Quantity. How many reads to show at once, anywhere from 1 to 100.
2. Generate. Pulls a fresh read, or a fresh set if you asked for more than one.
3. Starts with, Contains, Ends with. Optional filters that narrow the shelf before it picks. Leave them empty to use the whole thing.
4. Copy. Sends what is on screen to your clipboard as a plain list.

A pick is already on screen when the page opens, so there is nothing to set up before you start.

How it works

There is a fixed shelf of books behind the tool, and each press pulls from it at random. Ask for more than one and you get that many different reads, never the same one twice in a single set.

The filters are there when you want to aim. Contains keeps any read where your text shows up anywhere in the line, the author too, so typing murakami brings up Norwegian Wood and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. Starts with goes by the first character of the line and ends with by the last. Most of the time you will not need them, since the whole point here is to not have to decide.

What is on the shelf

It is a spread of widely loved books, the kind people pass around and tell each other to read. You will find modern favorites like A Man Called Ove, The Kite Runner, and All the Light We Cannot See alongside long-loved ones like Wolf Hall, The Goldfinch, and The Time Traveler's Wife, with classics mixed in among them.

Nothing is sorted by type or mood, which is the idea. When you do not know what you feel like, a shelf that throws something unexpected at you is more useful than one you have to filter. Take it as a strong starting shelf rather than a full catalogue, and reach for the Contains box only if you do have a name or a word in mind.

Why a random pick works here

Handing the choice to a tool sounds lazy until you notice how the not-deciding usually goes. You open three apps, read ten descriptions, keep none, and the hour is gone. There is a name for the drag behind that. In a 2008 study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Kathleen Vohs, Roy Baumeister, and their colleagues found that making one choice after another wears down the same mental energy you use to focus and follow through. The deciding itself tires you before the reading even starts.

The psychologist Barry Schwartz made the wider case in The Paradox of Choice, that more options often leave us less satisfied, not more, because we second-guess what we picked. A random pull sidesteps both. You did not labor over it, so there is nothing to second-guess, and the energy you would have spent comparing is still there for the book. That is the whole trade, and on an idle evening it is a good one.

Just start one

Because this is the low-stakes corner of reading, treat the pick lightly. You are not committing to anything. Open whatever it gives you, read the first page, and if it holds you, keep going. If it does not, you have lost nothing, so press the button again and start the next one. Nobody is grading you on finishing, and the fastest way to a good evening is to begin reading something rather than keep looking for the perfect thing. If two or three in a row leave you cold, switch the kind of read you are reaching for and let the shelf surprise you.

Questions people ask

Is it free, and is anything saved?

It is free with no sign-up, and nothing you generate is stored. The picks are made in your browser, so copy one if you want to keep it before you close the page.

Can it give me a small list instead of one?

Yes. Set the quantity to the number you want, up to 100, and press Generate to get that many different reads at once.

Why do I sometimes see the same titles as the novel picker?

The shelves overlap, since a good novel is a good thing to read. If you specifically want fiction, the novel picker is the one to use, and for true stories or comics there are pickers for those too.

Can I narrow it down if I do have something in mind?

Type a word or an author into the Contains box and the shelf trims to lines that include it. Leave it blank to keep the pick fully random.

References

1. Kathleen Vohs, Roy Baumeister, and colleagues, "Making Choices Impairs Subsequent Self-Control", Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2008, on the toll of repeated deciding. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18444745/
2. Barry Schwartz, "The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less", his talk on how more options can lower satisfaction. https://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_the_paradox_of_choice