Random Book Generator

The Random Book Generator pulls one to ten titles at random from a list of about 1,000 books and shows each with its cover, title and author. The list is a bookstore-style catalog rather than a curated canon: Neuromancer sits next to Educated, The Hunger Games next to Flour Water Salt Yeast, and a Mo Willems picture book next to a volume on the Gnostic Gospels. It is a book randomizer for when you cannot choose, for book-club draws and for finding something you would never have searched for.

What you can set

One field: the number of books, from 1 to 10 (three by default). Press Generate Book and the cards appear. There is no genre, author, length or era filter, and no "classics only" switch. The list is shuffled on each click, so a batch never contains the same title twice, though the same book can come up again on a later click.

What each card shows

A cover image, the title and a "By:" line with the author. A few entries list the illustrator instead of the writer (the Harry Potter volumes credit Mary GrandPre) and a handful have no author at all, in which case the line is left off. There is no synopsis, page count or rating, and no link to buy; take the title to your library or bookshop of choice.

What kind of books are in the list

Roughly a thousand titles, weighted toward books that sell in English-language bookstores over the past few decades. That includes:

• Adult fiction and classics: Neuromancer, The Gods Themselves, Mating, The Da Vinci Code, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.
• Young adult: The Hunger Games, Looking for Alaska, The Fault in Our Stars, Flipped, Crash.
• Children's and picture books: I Want My Hat Back, Last Stop on Market Street, Frindle, Math Curse, several Rick Riordan and Magic Tree House titles. Rick Riordan is the most frequent author with ten entries.
• Nonfiction: Educated, Team of Rivals, Empire of the Summer Moon, Polio, Doubt: A History, Just Kids.
• Practical and reference: cookbooks like Flour Water Salt Yeast and Elements of Dessert, a field guide to the birds of northern South America, presentation and parenting guides.

Because children's books make up a sizable share, a batch of ten aimed at adults will usually include one or two you can skip. Twenty titles appear twice in the source list (different editions), so a very large number of clicks will show some repeats more than chance alone would explain.

Ways to use it

• Breaking a reading slump. Generate three and commit to the first one you have not read. The lack of a genre filter is the feature here.
• Book club draws. Instead of arguing over next month's pick, generate five and vote.
• Library scavenger hunts. Kids get a random card and have to find the book on the shelf using the cover as the clue.
• Gift ideas. A random cover is a faster prompt than scrolling a bestseller list when you know the person's taste but not a specific title.

Once you have a book, the Audiobook Speed Calculator tells you how long the audio version takes at your playback speed. For shorter reading, the Random Bible Verse Generator and Random Bible Chapter Generator pick a passage, and the Poetry Prompt Generator gives you something to write instead of read. Browse all books, quotes and poetry tools for more.