The idea for BookBrowse came about in 1997 when our son was about three years old and our daughter was just one.  Before they were born, Paul and I used to spend hours happily browsing the shelves of our local bookstore and library, spending time to read a few pages of each book before whittling down our selections to the few we would buy or borrow.  Even with a baby in tow we were able to continue our old browsing habits, while he slept peacefully.  Then we were hit by the double whammy of the toddler years and a second child, and we soon realized that our browsing sessions were going to be nothing more than a happy memory for some time to come!

Surely, we said to ourselves, the answer is this new fangled thing called the World Wide Web, so off I went to explore the brave new world of the Internet.  Already there were many book related websites, ranging from huge booksellers to tiny genre specific sites.

However, I quickly became frustrated reading about books online because none of the websites allowed me to read the book itself; it was as if I'd walked into my local library and found all the books sealed shut with a sign saying 'look don't touch!'

I find it difficult to judge a book by just looking at the cover and reading a few paragraphs of promotional blurb. What I needed was a website that would combine the best features of an old fashioned bookstore (carefully selected and personally recommended books that can be browsed at will) with a range of reviews from sources that I trusted - so I would not only know what was being said about a particular book but could also read it for myself and make up my own mind. Thus BookBrowse was born. It took sometime to persuade publishers to allow BookBrowse to reproduce excerpts on the web, because up until that time it had not been done, but slowly and surely things grew to what you see today.

Today, BookBrowse remains focused on seeking out and recommending exceptional books. Because we don't sell books (and never have), and do not accept payments to list books, you can be sure that the books you find at BookBrowse are here on merit, and not because of the size of their marketing budgets. Best of all, you don't have to accept any BookBrowse recommendation at face value - because you can always read a substantial excerpt for yourself and decide if the book is right for you; in addition you'll find hundreds of author interviews and reading guides, and much else.

Thanks for reading!

Davina Morgan-Witts
Founder & Editor

Read more in our Introduction to BookBrowse.