It’s fairly safe to say that patrons at the South have been sufficiently woo’d by Outlander, both the TV series and the book series. What surprises me most is not the popularity of Outlander in general, but the wide-ranging reasons for it’s popularity. Patrons (and librarians) have exulted the complex romance, swooned over the historical aspects, been captivated by the Scottish locale, fascinated by the time travel and, in one memorable instance, a friend of mine noted on Goodreads that the main character is a seriously amazing nurse (my friend is a nurse herself so she found this aspect particularly appealing).

Outlander has been on my “to read” list for some time as I find several of the aspects mentioned above appealing to my own reading sensibilities, but I’ve found myself paralyzed by the release of the TV show. What do I do first? Do I watch the TV show to alleviate some of the anxiety of suspense in the books and then read the books? Do I read the first book and then watch the TV series? Do I commit myself to reading all of the books before watching the  series? (A fairly hefty commitment given that the series thus far covers 6936 pages!) Recommendations in the comments section or at the South Branch are welcome as I’ve yet to overcome this paralysis, but am eager to do so! The South Branch certainly has options when it comes to getting started offering the first season of the TV series, several of the books in the series (including the first and e-books of all of the titles currently published in the Outlander series, individually, or, in a particularly fascinating encouragement to binge-read, as a complete e-book set of all of the titles in one file.

For those of you who have already overcome the paralysis, have finished reading the series and have seen both seasons (and are eagerly awaiting the next 2 seasons for which Starz has committed the show), there are many options to fuel your Outlander fire. I don’t even really need to flex my librarian muscles to find new titles that will appeal to fans of the many of the different aspects of Outlander. There are already no fewer than four book lists with titles ranging from classics to brand-new books that Outlander fans can enjoy.

I was hoping to list below the books that overlapped on the four different lists, but was surprised (pleasantly so) to discover that I couldn’t see any repeats in the book lists and each list had a satisfying explanation as to why the book was recommended and to which aspect of Outlander it will appeal the most. Instead, I’m simply going to give you a link to the library’s catalog here, where you can search for any of the recommended books (several of which we have at the South Branch) and give you the links to the book lists so you can explore and choose for yourself what your next read may be. Till next week, dear readers, I hope these lists lead you to a new, wonderful discovery, and maybe even a new series to devour!

BookBub lists 9 new books (new as of the publication of the article in September of 2015) reminiscent in some way of Outlander here.

PopSugar, whose reading challenge I mentioned earlier this year, focuses on a wide range historical romances in this slide show.

Here is a slightly older list from BookBub listing 11 titles that bear resemblance to Outlander.

Finally, Bustle offers another 9 books for Outlander fans with a wonderfully diverse set of offerings here.