How do you find books to read?

I am genuinely curious. I have been an avid reader since I learned to read. As a child, I would go to the library and check out six books at a time, which was the max. In the summer I would go every day. I remember having a hard time finding things to read. I would walk through the library and pick up books that looked interesting. In second grade I picked up a fat paperback with a purple cover. It was Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild. I loved it and if I had known there were more, I would have snapped them right up, but no one told me and I didn't think to look. I ended up reading many books by the same author, if I found one I liked, and reading a lot of series. Baby Sitters Club and Nancy Drew I remember in particular.

As I got older, I started sharing books with my sister who is also an avid reader. We still trade books and recommendations now and then when we find something good. My dad also passed books to us when he was finished with them, which introduced me to Stephen King. When my sister and I were in high school, one of our mom's friends heard that we like to read and gave us two or three of those old cardboard boxes for soda twelve packs, stuffed with Harlequin romances. I'm pretty sure we read every one.

In college, I made a rule that I could not read for fun during the semester. I would never have gotten any work done otherwise. One semester some classmates were talking about the Harry Potter series and how I should read it. I had no interest, but by the end of the semester they had talked me into trying it and I ended up picking up the first four and devouring them over Christmas break. Sometimes I will read a book if the movie is coming out and I think I will see it. The book is almost always better.

Now that the internet is available, it is a lot easier to find book recommendations. There is almost too much information to wade through, but I love it. Thanks to sites like Goodreads, I can put books I am interested in on my to read list and come back to it when I am looking for something to read. I also find a lot of new authors by checking out free e-books. Reading fan fiction also gave me a lot of great things to read.

The reason I stared this blog was to toss out some ideas for people looking for books to read. I read many different genres, so hopefully someone will find something that looks interesting. And sometimes it is nice to read something different.

So how about you? How do you decide what to read? Friends? Book reviews? Blogs? I want to know!