Sometimes when buying gifts for hard-to-shop-for people I'll use a random-word generator and put that into Amazon and see what comes up. The process has also found some interesting books for myself that I'd have been unlikely to come across either as recommendations or on my own browsing.
Sometimes you have to be open to a less direct search style, or just pick a new word. For example trying it now, the word was "corrod" (I believe it's meant to be the Welsh plural of "cor", which is "dwarf or pygmy") and nothing was found so I might just move on to a new word. But something in Amazon's systems must be interpreting it as "corrode" and so one of the suggested sub-categories I noticed on the side is "Steampunk fiction". Here's an entire genre I didn't realize existed and would be unlikely to find or notice if it even exists at a library or book store. Now I can go look at random books in that category, or google for "best steampunk fiction" to get some good suggestions for entry points.
You have to create the circumstances for serendipity.
Sometimes you have to be open to a less direct search style, or just pick a new word. For example trying it now, the word was "corrod" (I believe it's meant to be the Welsh plural of "cor", which is "dwarf or pygmy") and nothing was found so I might just move on to a new word. But something in Amazon's systems must be interpreting it as "corrode" and so one of the suggested sub-categories I noticed on the side is "Steampunk fiction". Here's an entire genre I didn't realize existed and would be unlikely to find or notice if it even exists at a library or book store. Now I can go look at random books in that category, or google for "best steampunk fiction" to get some good suggestions for entry points.
You have to create the circumstances for serendipity.