I hate the sight of a nightstand without a book on it. It means I have nothing to read. And with eyes that are continually hungry for words, it means I’ll have to resort to reading the J. Crew catalog at night instead of a novel. Even words like “Italian cashmere” and “out of your price range” are better than nothing.

Most of the time, I read one book after another. But every once in a while, I find myself in the middle of a “book drought.” Book droughts happen when I finish a book but I’m still on a waiting list for my next one. Or, sometimes they happen because I run out of book recommendations. Or, sometimes I know what to read but it’s the wrong season to read it. For example, I once attempted to plow my way through Wuthering Heights in the dark, cold month of November. Lesson learned: When the book itself feels like a dark, cold November it’s best to read it in May. I never finished it.

At the moment, I’m in a book flood. It feels a bit like this:

But book droughts are inevitable. With that in mind, I’ve been searching for a more reliable source of book recommendations. In the past, I’ve discovered books through two main sources: friends and magazine book reviews. These methods have their limits though. For instance, magazines only review new and popular titles, yet many good books are old and obscure.

Not long ago, I heard about Goodreads. (This is probably akin to saying “not long ago, I heard about iPhones,” because Goodreads has been around for years.) Initially, I dismissed it as yet another social networking site. I’ve hit the “Sign Up for a Free Account!” button one too many times in my life. The last thing I need is another password to forget. Before I dismissed it completely, I visited the site and clicked on “About Us.” That’s all it took to change my mind. It turns out that Goodreads is run by a bunch of people who must loathe book droughts as much as I do. The site offers a lot of helpful features. Not only is it a place to read book reviews and get recommendations, you can also record your own reviews and keep track of what you’ve read.

So far, thanks to my book flood, I haven’t spent much time on the site. If you ever want to become book buddies though, you can find me at goodreads.com/creativespark.