Poll

"Don't judge a book by it's cover"

Well thats the phrase i am going to use to tell people who are taking chances.

Also spend your time looking into the book and reading some pages. You never know .....the outside is beautiful but the inside...is very very not nice.

I always do that method when i go to the library to take some books to read. but not saying that u should read the same book again and again and dont have a chanse to read other kinds of books

How else are we supposed to pick out books????????

Just read the center of the book and see if is nice emmy

sure i would ... often it's what you have at hand in a bookstore to guide your selection ... and during the last 5 to 7 years really, one can tell quite a lot about a book by its cover ... can't you recognize the 'new' romance books? teen books? modernist? seems you can tell a lot more by the cover than ever before even without the short hyperbole on the back cover ... and it seems the more 'literary' books now have minimalist cover art ... very sparse and usually earth tones :)

I do it all the time!

It's not that I like to take chances, it's that usually when I head to a bookstore I don't have much time. About all I end up reading is the description and seeing the cover. This is how I end up reading some of the most amazing novels.

I will admit, I've done stranger things. While at the library I've just run my fingers along books and sometimes one will bite me. Sometimes it doesn't work, but it does often work well.

I do take a LOT of recommendations from friends and coworkers and even people I run into at bookstores. Makes me wish that we had one closer by to me.

Emma wrote: "How else are we supposed to pick out books????????"

emma :) here are a few lists that might help you (and others of course) pick out some books to read ... they are mostly the books we all like to claim we have read ;) lol ... but it's a great place to get ideas and look for new authors too

Time Magazine top 100 novels -- http://entertainment.time.com/2005/10...

Modern Library's Top 100 Fiction and Non-Fiction Books / also includes their 'rival' Radcliffe's Top 100 -- http://www.modernlibrary.com/top-100/...

The New York Times Top 100 Novels (this list in 1998 seemed to be the kick-off for the millenium book-lists to follow) -- http://www.nytimes.com/1998/07/20/boo...

and here's a list of American Literary Awards (it's long but looks pretty darned comprehensive lol) -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category...

i hope that's of some use to you and other readers here :) a bit more info maybe than the blurbs ;)

Andrew wrote: "“If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.”
― Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood"

i don't remember that line from The Beatles song ;)

Before receiving the Kindle, that was the way I would buy all my books. They had a to have a great description on the back to catch my interest. I still go to book stores to find books that way. Only now I buy them through Amazon. It's a great way to find new authors!

That's my usual method of choosing books--by myself in a bookstore, no one to tell me what they thought or didn't think. Book descriptions are make-or-break invitations.

I do this all the time. If the cover isn't catchy and the discription doesn't sound good, I won't pick it up.

This is pretty much how I choose all of my books.

Heather wrote: "It's not that I like to take chances, it's that usually when I head to a bookstore I don't have much time. About all I end up reading is the description and seeing the cover. This is how I end up r..."

That's funny ... I've done the same thing ... run my finger through the books titles and see what catches my eye. Found some good books doing it that way!

Before ebooks, I would usually read a book based on the description on the inside jacket but now I usually check for reviews on here or on Amazon first.

Of course. I love wandering around a book-store looking for books that I haven't heard of before. I usually do this in libraries as it means that I'm not wasting money if it was a book that I didn't like.

Do this all the time.

I do it all the time. Occasionally, I get a horrible book, but I find some of the most interesting short stories out there by just taking a chance.

Coriander wrote: "The old saying "Don't judge a book by its cover" truly has meaning to it. I have to constantly remind myself of that."

You copied me

i do it more than i'd like to admit.

I constantly do this, it's the most simple form of discovering a new author or genre.

they say not to judge a book by it's cover, but how can you not? that's how i decide if i'm interested or not. if the cover draws me in, then i'll read the back/inside cover. if there's no description, though, like how it is with older books, i might get it from the library first or check out online reviews before actually buying it.

I actually had to stop for a second when I saw this - because that is how I choose a lot of the things I read. Browsing library shelves and picking up books based off their covers and/or titles, skimming descriptions and deciding to give a book a chance from that.

I do read things recommended to me, and sometimes I go looking for reviews of books of a particular genre, or something like that, but mostly I don't really look for 'verification' that a book is good before I read it. For one thing, I've come across, read, and liked a fair number of books that if I'd trusted only to reviews, I wouldn't have read at all.

This is pretty much the only way I pick books.

That's how I make most of my decisions. I've found most of my favorite books this way, as opposed to just reading what everyone else says is good!

I clicked 'yes' because that's the main way I choose my books (since I stopped working in audio publishing), but that by no means means that I will finish a book if it doesn't maintain my interest (which is its job, after all)

Absolutely! A title catches my interest, then I read the back. If I am still interested I read a random page to get a feel for the writing style.This goes back to childhood, when the Bookmobile (who remembers that?) Came to town and we had to stock up for two weeks.

I do it frequently and have been pleasantly surprised!
I have found sme very good free books this way on Amazon for my Kindle.

Cormac wrote: "Andrew wrote: "“If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.”
― Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood"

i don't remember that line from Th..."

...and you bring nothing new to the table.

I always do this. i found most of my favorite books this way.

I do this all the time. Especially with covers! I still tend to go online and check reviews before buying though. :) But not very often. When a cover is just that good, I usually go ahead and get it.

I have decided to buy or not to buy based on description, because if its not my type of book, even if its a bestseller, I am unlikely to enjoy reading it. A well-designed cover may initially draw me towards a book, and make me spend more time trying to assess it, compared to its less interesting companions sitting on the shelf. Also, if the description is well written, it says something about what to expect on the inside, kind of like a smile on the face of a stranger. And by the same token, its leaving a lot to possibility, but isn't that what life is about?

If the description catches my attention, I will read it!! Covers are VERY important in getting me to even pick a book up to read the description.

I do that all the time! I would say it is taking chances, but you develop a sense of what is going to be something you like or not. I have found some of my favorite books that way. C=

Read the blurb, download the kindle free sample, see if it sucks.

I do it all the time and always have.
Mind you, I'm currently reading a book with no cover art (published in 1950s) and no blurb...and it's good book!
Why do publishers/authors spend money on cover art and bother writing blurb if not to attract readers? How do the pollsters think we chose books before GR and blogging??? From age 7 yo, I browsed the shelves in my local library, attracted purely by spines and titles, after which I'd read the blurb and then maybe the book.
Personally, I love linen-look covered books...found some gems between those sorts of covers!

this is the way I usually find books to read! this may be why recently I haven't really been impressed with the books I've read....

I just go by the rule that if the description makes no sense to me, I don't read it. Otherwise, I like to take chances and experiment with different stuff.

I always stumble upon books like that..and I always take chances. Maybe I could be the one recommending it to friends :)

mmmmmmmmmmm don't all readers do this??

I do it often, but sometimes I regret it.
I prefer to read some pages befor buying the book

I stumbled by accident on several authors I now read religiously. (Well, I don't do ANYTHING "religiously," but you get the idea.) Karin Slaughter, Megan Abbott, Chelsea Cain, Jo Nesbo, to name just a few of the more current writers. But I'd never let the COVER dissuade me from reading a book; the cover is not in the least the fault of the writer, who is rarely even consulted, but is designed by an artist employed or commissioned by the publisher. Frequently they haven't even READ the book when they design the cover art---just the publisher's synopsis. Trust me---it's happened to me more than once. The jacket flap notes, although also written by someone in the editor's office, at least gives me an idea of what the book is about. And I rarely allow anyone else to encourage or dissuade me with their opinions. Everyone has different tastes.

Since reading any book is a time investment, I want to make sure I invest it wisely. I'd rather a read a classic that I haven't read yet than roll the dice on something I've never heard of. I admit that choosing books this way is limiting, but you only have so much time in a lifetime!

Most of the books I read are based off of cover and description. Once I've read all my books, I go to the library and just pick books that look interesting based off their name on the spine, the I read the description. That's how I discovered my favorite author.

Usually the only way I read them!

maybe

the description is what tells us what the book is about, right? that's what it's there for! :)

only if the cover looked good and the description sounded good so yes i would read it.

More often than not, I will give a book a try based on the cover and the description(or just the description for an audiobook). I've found some good reads that way.

the description is what the book is about, and if you like subject, then read the book. everybody is different, and if you ask your friend, your friend is differnt, and will probably have a difernt opinion than you. SO GIVE THE BOOK A CHANCE BASED ON COVER AND DESCRIPTION, IT'S WHAT I DO EVERY DAY, AND I LIKED ABOUT 96% OF WHAT I READ.

Sadly I'm guilty of "Judging a book by it's cover" but this is how I find many amazing books to read! Sometimes i'll flip it around and find the book with the most boring cover and give it a shot.