HOW TO …find your next read


THE LAST STIEG LARSSON HAS GONE BACK TO THE LIBRARY and unless the rumour that his girlfriend has the last one on her computer is true, there won’t be any more. (For non-fans, he died in 2004.) So what will you read next? If you’ve acquired a taste for bleak Scandinavian thrillers, you could work your way through the works of Henning “Wallander” Mankell, popularised in the UK by Kenneth Branagh [in BBC1’s Wallander] or Icelandic Yrsa Sigurðardóttir. But you don’t have to stay in the far North. Sarah Broadhurst, who chooses “like


for like” books on lovereading.co.uk, reckons Larsson lovers should try Tasmanian Richard Flanagan and Brits Mark Mills and R J Ellory. Her choices are based on 25 years of reviewing paperbacks for the publishers’ bible The Bookseller, and this website is the closest you’ll get to


word-of-mouth recommendation online. But if you crave personal contact,


she suggests nobbling the owners of independent bookshops and joining a book group. Talk to your local librarian—not always the one who stamps your book—and check library websites like Ask Chris (askchris.essexcc.gov.uk). Unlike your local branch, they’re open all hours. Still stuck? Then email Radio 4’s Open


Book reading clinic and let Mariella Frostrup sort you out. But equally, trust your instincts. If you’re a crime addict, read thrillers from every decade (see booktrust. org.uk and neglectedbooks.com for ideas), follow a theme like Victorian crimes, or read up on the locations you visit. And don’t forget RD’s own Book Club—see readersdigest.co.uk/magazine. The UK publishes more books than anywhere else in the world—so enjoy!


LEFT BANK PICTURES/BBC


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