I’ve already shared with you my love for books. The reason why I love books and reading so much. But what do you think makes you pick a particular book and walk past another.
Factors to look for when buying a book
- A beautiful/attractive/bright cover
- The blurb/summary
- Award-winning book
- Recommended by friend/family/blogger
- Highly reviewed book on Amazon or Goodreads
- A review of the book by a noted author
- The word “bestselling” on the cover page
- A renowned author’s name
- A recent release
- Genre – I prefer some genres, so I am willing to give new authors a go
- Medium length book
- Reasonably priced
- Publisher – the Big 5s. They’ve done the job for you. When they publish, the book is worth reading.
Factors to skip a book
- A high-priced novella
- Confused author, unclear title.
- Shoddy editing
- Chapters or structure of the book seems illogical.
- Summary lacks to create a hook/curiosity.
- Length of the book, I avoid books fatter than three inches or beyond 600 pages.
- Unknown authors
- Very short books (less than 50 pages) – because I tend to think the author didn’t have much to offer.
- Zero reviews, which might be a factor for some. But for me, this is generally an opportunity to read and review this book for my blog.
- I sometimes don’t pick titles because they were written too many years ago. I prefer contemporary.
- Erotic book covers – can’t read that book on a commute. I might pick it up on my Kindle.
- Autobiographies – I will never buy one myself. They are long, usually, and I find them dull.
Conclusion
Although these factors may help us decide our next read most of the time, sometimes even these tips fail. Don’t judge me, but although hugely popular, I am not a fan of Stephanie Meyer’s books. Many avid readers argue that it’s a poorly written book and yet it’s an obsession in the younger generation. It’s inexplicable.
So what I’m trying to say here is even if a book checks all the pros listed above, it may not work for a reader. But I know you’ll agree that all readers are unique, and so are their tastes and the magic that is created for each of them while reading a book. So go on and pick one without any rules and see if it’s magic works for you.
Recently The Dark web Murders by Brian O’hare was one such novel I read that had me hooked although being by a new author, independently published and not very well reviewed yet. I decided to give the author a push by writing a review for the book.
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