5 little tips: how to choose a book

I’ve always had a trouble deciding on a book at the library and at the bookstore. I can wander for half an hour through the shelves without having made a decision, particularly if I am looking for the one. However, I always keep in mind that there are millions of books in the world, and among those there are thousands of good books and hundreds of the ones. I think reading a variety of books is more important than reading only the best books, particularly because the best books are often the hardest to discover – once you find them, they’re all keepers! Here are five little tips that I use to go book hunting:

1. Decide on a genre, subject, theme, etc: Narrow your search by deciding what you would like to read about so you don’t overwhelm yourself from the start. You can start exploring big names and titles in those categories, and expand your search little by little from there.
2. Check out book lists, reviews and recommendations: Chances are, you are not the first to have picked up that book. There are tons of book lists that people bookmark and review their favorite books
3. Don’t judge a book by its cover, but you can judge it by its title: Authors are artists with words, not pictures. They might be able to paint you a picture with beautiful description, but who knows about their ability to squeeze the essence of their novel into an interesting cover. Look at the title, since the style revealed in it is a better description of what the book holds. But always remember, it’s what’s on the inside that counts!
4. Read the summaries: After taking the book of the shelf, check out the summary to see if the content interests you. Something that I always do is flip the book open to a random page and give it a short read. I like to know the writer’s style before reading the book, since how well the book is written affects how much I would enjoy the book.
5. Get lots of books: The library is probably the best place for book hunting, because you can borrow many books without worrying about your budget. Not all books are worth keeping, so for those of us that enjoy reading books by the armload, stick to the library first, and the bookstore second. Furthermore, with a larger variety of books, you can widen your horizons about subject matter, and that’s when you can really discover what you like to read best.

Online book lists:

• goodreads
• YA reads
• BOOK RIOT
• The New York Review of Books