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Prolixic

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How do you go about picking a new author to read? Randomly? Cover art? Alphabetically? Others?

Please let me know as all four or five of my favorite authors seemed to have died before I realized it and I have, at times, found myself in dire straights for reading material. (Perhaps I'm too cheap to pick up books I've heard of before.)
 
I tend to go off the cover and the synopsis. Not the best way I suppose, but I've had some good surprises (got into Clive Cussler this way).

Just bought Chameleon by Mark Burnell today. Never heard of him, but the cover ("One woman, one man, nine passports") and synopsis caught my attention.
 
Cover and synopsis and I read a lot of book reviews on the Internet (on amazon.com or smaller sites).
I also take advice from people with similar tastes...
My problem is that I've got too many ideas about what to read and of course not enough time!:)
 
I've just noticed that Chameleon is the second book. Perhaps it'll have to wait until I gotten around to buying and reading the first one.

That can be a problem with finding a new author too. Lots of them write books that make references to earlier books. Depending on the author the whole plot can rely on info gleaned from the earlier books.
 
That can be a problem with finding a new author too. Lots of them write books that make references to earlier books.
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That's true and you can't always count on the list of other books published either. It's worse than getting to the end of a really good TV show and seeing "to be continued," (I don't know if they actually do that any more but was irritating.) What's worse is that if you go ahead and read the 2nd book it might spoil the first one. Marie's probably got the best idea with the Internet research idea.
 
Prolixic originally wrote:
How do you go about picking a new author to read?
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I used to go by cover and book synopsis, but ran into quite a few duds. (It's ok, if they're from the library - you just return 'em, but too expensive if you've bought them.)

Now, I go mostly by personal recommendations from fellow readers. I like to surf around the 'net looking at book sites and reading lists. If I think I've got similar tastes - or my interest is piqued, I'll add a few titles/authors to my ever-expanding TBR list.

eg. From the Book Forum recommendations:

- I've tried Clive Cussler and have added Ann Patchett's Bel Canto - thanks Toby and Darren :)

- Also plan to try something by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

Ell
 
Usually I'll be at amazon.com and see what kind of similiar authors come up through searches, listmanias, etc. Then, I read many custumor reviews of their various titles and if something if I find something interesting, I'll try one of their books. I discovered Michael DiMercurio's books this way, as well as, most recently, Joe Weber's, and that's how I decided to finally pick up a Stephen Coonts. All of which are now among my fav authors.

At the moment I'm getting ready to trying something out by David Hagberg soon.

In book stores I'll browse through titles in the genre I like (always military and political stuff) and read other author's comments, if any, on the paperbacks, which always has praise and bits of various reviews.
 
I've started to build up quite an extensive "to read" list, partly based on my own opinions but also on recommendations from people on here.

The Book of the Month feature has introduced a couple of books I probably wouldn't have read before.

Reading other people's reviews helps a lot too. Hopefully as the new library here develops there'll be more info to choose from. (BTW post any comments in the feedback forum about it - likes/dislikes, any changes/new features etc...)

I've been thinking about trying Wilbur Smith, but not sure which is a good one to start with.
 
Book reviews, other peoples recommendations, and lucky dip box lots. I've read quite a few recently that I wouldn't have even looked at usually, just because they came in a box from a garage sale.
 
I go for the cover, read blurbb and recommendations from my mates and in paper.
At Waterstones, they always display the books on the table, there are oftens new authors I never heard before, I pick them to see how it go.
 
I inherit a lot of books, and as long as the back sounds vaguely interesting, I'll give it a try. Too many on the shelf now, though, I really need to figure out how to be more selective. Once I find an author I like, I'll read everything they write.
 
I read reviews on amazon and book forums, as well as the synopsis. Cover art really doesn't mean much to me. I often look for people with similar tastes in books and ask them, as well. I use kind of a three-prong approach: reviews, synopsis, and recommendations.
 
A lot of books I just pick up at random off the bookshelf. Others I get recommendations for. But I buy quite a lot of books from Amazon and then spend quite a bit of time trawling through my recommendations list picking out anything that sounds interesting.
 
Aside from authors that I currently like, I'm drawn to books where the title on the cover is larger than the author's name.
 
Mile-O-Phile said:
Aside from authors that I currently like, I'm drawn to books where the title on the cover is larger than the author's name.
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That's a good rule, I think. I also try to avoid books who have a blurb that starts, "If you liked ____________________, then you'll love this book." Especially if I was supposed to like "The Bridges of Madison County."
 
I tend to be quite a good judge of cover these days! I like modern fiction - the sort of small town American things - Alice Hoffman, Elizabeth Berg etc etc

I quite often judge a book by it's cover - and am usually right - for my tastes anyway!

I am also a member of several bookclubs so I am always reading up on new authors and books before they are published. I have got into lots of authors this way. It's also useful because they might say "If you like Hoffman - you'll love this", or "Somewhere between Ann Tyler and Harper Lee" etc etc and it gives you some indication of what sort of style a writer may have....although
as the saying goes

"No two people ever read the same book"
 
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