Simple question. How do you decide which book you want to get? Do you buy because someone recommended it or looked for the bestsellers? I just think of what genre I want to read and go for the classics in that genre. I'll just google 'the best dystopian books of all time', and then pick from that. After I realised old books are not boring, in fact, they are way better than the current bestsellers, which will probably be there for a few weeks and then forgotten. So yeah, what's your process of selecting books to read? How did you come across the last 3 books you read.
I don't have a system for buying, I just buy them. I think I've amassed a solid collection (I have ten crates of books, plus five or six boxes) of random stuff. I read a bit of everything, so I keep a bit of everything around. My to read pile is massive and I told myself I can't buy any more books till I get at least half of them read. (I lied and said I'd do that)
I have a boxcrate book subscription where I get two random books twice a month based on my preferred genres I selected.
I know you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but covers and titles are a major part of how I choose. I expect them to give me a strong sense of what the story is about. Better yet if they manage to create an entire atmosphere on their own. And then there's the classic one, their cover usually a little out of style, so I pick them basic on their premise.
I like to read interviews of the authors I follow. One of the questions typically asked is what the author is currently reading and why. Following that trail has been an excellent source of new titles and new writers I would likely have never noticed.
Two main routes. I'm either interested on the author or the genre for purely research purposes, or just out of personal interest. Most of non-fiction and technical books are included here, but works of fiction also apply. The other route is by pure chance, luck, coincidence or karma. I still care about the old ritual of searching a library, walking or driving to the place, have a look around the shelves and then let chance guide me. I'll pick up a book with an intriguing name, open the first page, read the first sentence and decide right there and then. If I detect myself being too forgiving, I'll allow myself the pleasure to discard the book. To keep reading depends on the first page. To fall in love usually on the very first sentence. Covers can make up for a boring title, but if it's not working on the first page, after forgiving you that mediocre first sentence... I also read other authors I'm friends with. This has killed a few friendships, since if you ask me for my opinion, I'll give you my opinion... Best sellers won't ever make me break the first page rule. Not even from writers I've admired on the past.
I dont have a favorite author, though i have authors i LIKE. I dont have a favorite genre, though i have genres i LIKE. Meaning, i dont stay with a certain genre or find "read-alikes" of certain authors. I float around, but i almost always start my book store trip with 30mins in the scifi/fantasy section.If i dont see anything eye catching, ill move on to another genre. When im at work (library), I read a lot of synopses and reviews of books, so my reading habits have jumped around a lot. I read what is interesting to me at the time. Ive even read a few amish romances that seemed to have a pretty decent plot. Jumped the fiction ship into non fiction for a while because of an NPR segment. Started a graphic novel series because it was advertised in a magazine in the breakroom and looked cool (library magazines are everywhere lol, to keep us up to date on whats current so we can order it) Im a floater
A few ways. Usually these days because it's either been pushed into my hands by a friend or it's connected to something I'm interested in.. Occasionally I'll read something just based on reputation too. There was a long time, and I suppose I do still do this, when I was obsessively buying and reading everything 'canonical', and not just in the 'western canon' although I did start out doing that. I've become really obsessive over the way books are edited, and really do like to spend the extra amount to get authoritative editions. Especially now I can afford to do that. I'm much more care-free when it comes to poetry. Either something catches my eye randomly when walking around a bookshop, or I've done some research on a writer and went out to find some of the their work. I really like books, especially poetry books, that are duel language, and in a language I either know or am interested in. Sometime soon I'm going to buy the Oxford edition of Cavafy's poetry - I've already read some of his stuff in English translation, but that book also has the Greek. Even if I never learn Greek well enough to read literature, I donno, I just like seeing it. Yes, I'm a dork.
I am a sucker for a book cover! So browsing in a supermarket or even better a bookstore is heaven. But if I go with my head I will usually download and this satisfies my true urges. I tend to choose by Genre, if I trust an author then I will stand by them as long as the quality remains. As I like to write, I will buy a book just to figure out how the whole thing was put together. I would choose a bestseller over an up and coming author any day. There was only one exception and that was JK Rowling, it was clear that she could stand shoulder to shoulder with her contemporaries from the very start. Funny though, she was that good in the end that people turned against her. In time she will be truly appreciated.
I can’t vote on this because it’s a combination of them all, with the exception of buying bestsellers. In fact ‘bestseller’ is the single biggest turn off when choosing a book because the vast majority of society have terrible taste in pretty much everything.
I'm drawn to series. I remember seeing the first and second series of Thomas Covenant on the bookshelf in my school library, and I thought - hmm, six nice thick books, fantasy, I should try this. I thought they were some of the best books I've ever read. I like imitating Stephen Donaldson's writing as well. @Wreybies will strongly disagree with me on this! I did the same with the Wheel of Time, and came to the opposite conclusion.
Book covers do have an impact and recommendations but it comes down to reading the samples from Amazon. I'm so glad for Kindle samples - if I like it and it grabs me it will go to my must-buy-these-sometime-down-the-road list and if it really grabs me and it's only $1.99 or $0.99 Kindle book, I'll buy it right away. I really like Kindle when I can get it because if I wake up early in the morning I can grab my phone and read and not have to turn on a light and wake up my wife. I do like paper/physical books when it comes to art/artists or photography or anything that has lots of drawings/photos in the book. It's too tiny on my iPhone. If the sample bores me it gets removed permanently from my phone and that's the end of that. Life is to short to read something you don't like just because everyone else on Goodreads thinks it's brilliant.
Im the opposite,lol! I avoid series if i can help it. I dont want to commit to a never ending series that loses steam after the 5th book (i am currently stuck in a series right now lol). I like non-chronological (there has to be a neater word for this that im blanking on) series with books that can stand alone, if that makes sense. The Books of Samaria by Sharon Shinn is one of those. But its hard to distinguish those from a regular series, so i just stay away from them in general.
Looooooooved these books, and you won't find a less religious person on two legs, but still. Fascinating narrative. If you liked these for this reason, allow me to proffer Larry Niven's Known Space, if you've not already partaken. With the exception of the Ringworld books, which are set in the same universe and represent a series within a series, the rest can be read in any order you like. Their connections and interrelatedness is not linear.
I choose by different criteria every time. I go through so many books and audiobooks that I try to jump genres and eras as frequently as possible so as not to burn out on one or another. In a month, I'll read a couple of mid-century sci-fis, a 70's horror, a modern supernatural thriller, a true crime, an investigative journalism story, a tear-jerker, a "classic" I've always been curious about, etc., etc. I have a monster to-read list compiled after reading reviews, top 100 lists and the like. Of course I also now have twenty or so favorite authors I jump back to frequently. There are so many titles on the list that I find myself doing "bubblegum bubblegum in a dish" to choose between the five I'm in the mood to read next. There are just so many books to read!
I choose for varying reasons, mostly by what topic I am interested in or researching for a story. Like: pulp scifis, quantum physics/space, history books. I like books that feel real, because...well, it's like Tom Clancy said: fiction has to make sense, but nonfiction does not. So I want to write in a way that feels nonfiction. Well, and classic scifi so I can get ideas of how to be weird.
At the moment I'm interested in classics from great authors or writers. Poe, Hemingway, Joyce, Shakespeare, Dante, Kipling etc. Few more modern authors like C.S. Lewis or Daniel Handler (very much enjoyed series of unfortunate events). Very old pieces like Homers epics and Helen of Troy are very interesting to me too. As well as fables and folklore. Mythology, etc.
