Choosing books to read

Tracy Durnell recently wrote about what makes her pick up a book to read, which I found interesting both for how similar some of her approaches are and how different others are compared to my own methods. I say ‘methods’ but I have no formalised approach to picking books. Indeed this is not something I have ever given thought to until now. The blurb is what I turn to when I find myself wandering the aisles of my local Waterstones looking for my next read. Authors I have previously read are both easy to pick up again or avoid, depending on whether I liked their previous works or not, but I am not too heartless about it, often giving people multiple chances before outright refusing to read their works. Word of mount is another big factor, but such books go on my list and stay there for a while before I buy a copy. Often I look at the blurb for these before deciding whether to proceed. Nowadays I also download Kindle samples so I can decide if I want to read the entire book or not. This…