Introduction to A Really Good Book

I read a lot. Last year I read 78 complete books, at least the first 50 pages of 15 more, and countless others where I didn't get through more than a few pages (countless because I don't count them).

I get recommendations from all over: friends, top ten lists, award winners, etc. The recommendations are often not to my taste, and I have always wanted to find a source that I could count on to put me in touch with Really Good Books. Not having found one, I decided to be that source myself, passing along to you those titles I have encountered which earned four or five stars in my personal rating system. "Four Stars" means Highly Recommended and "Five Stars" means "Drop everything and read this book NOW!"

These recommendations are not book reviews or even summaries of books I have read. Personally, I don't like to know too much about a book before I read it, and I never read reviews before reading the book, though I will often do so afterwards.

I will offer some remarks on the books I recommend on these pages; however, I intend these remarks to serve only to whet your appetite for the titles, and they will in no way spoil the great treat in store for you when you get around to cracking the covers (or turning on your eReader) for the first time.

Every time I add a new book page, I will announce it on Twitter. So if you do Twitter, please Follow Me!

If you don't do Twitter and want to hear about new pages, get on my RGB (that's Really Good Books) Mailing List. Send your email address to dcopps [at] myfairpoint [dot] net, with "RGB Mailing List" in the Subject Line. Your address will not be used for any other purpose than to alert you to new pages. (If you are a Facebook friend, you will also hear of new pages there.)

And please offer your comments in my Reader Responses section on each page. However, if you are tempted to enter a comment to the following effect:

"Are you crazy, dcopps? This book stunk!"

then don't bother. We have different tastes and my recommendations are for those readers who are going to be really happy (and grateful) they had someone recommend Really Good Books. If you are one of the latter, please pass along my page links to friends who are also on the lookout for RGBs.

And Happy Reading!