Most of what I read has been recommended to me by a friend (or two or three), though there are a couple books I've picked up recently because I'd seen them on display repeatedly and thought they looked intriguing/interesting. (The books in question were Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, which I picked up because of the title, and The Fifth Wave, which I picked up because the cover was cool and then I stood in Strand Books and read the prologue.)

I've read a couple books recently that were gifted to me by my brother, who has a really good eye for things people will like (he usually gets books for everyone for Christmas/birthdays), which I guess sort of falls under the recommendations header?

And then there's the books I picked up as a blind date, which a local bookshop does: the workers wrap books in brown paper with vague-ish descriptions and you choose one based on whether the description sounds interesting. That's how I got both Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter and Girls of Atomic City by Denise Kiernan.