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Choosing the next book

B

blackstar

New Member
So how does everyone go about choosing the next book to read?

Do you go on recommendations or just browse bookshops and libraries? Are you big fans of lists like the Booker Prize?

Personally, I love to spend hours in libraries and bookshops, I always find there's such a lovely atmosphere in them.
 
I join so many online reading groups that they tell me what I am going to read next :D

Otherwise, I tend to buy many books at the same time so just try and find one I am in the mood for out of my collection. This depends on the time of day I need to choose the book, because first thing on a Monday morning on my way to work I am more inclined to choose a book youd don't need to concentrate very much on.

Mxx
 
Oh I can definitely sympathise with Monday morning brain freeze. Sometimes I end up reading the same sentence about 10 times and even then I've only caught the first word! :eek:
 
I never plan what I'm going to read next. I usually go to library/bookshop/house of a friend, and, after browsing the titles, I just pick some book. My choice depends on many things: current mood, catchy title, recommendations I heard earlier.
 
It usually depends on what I've just finished.. I read quite a few series, and some I like to finish before others, it depends on how into the story I am.
I don't usually go by what others recomend, or such, I'm not sure why, I just never have. If I don't have any particular line of books in mind, then I can spend hours wandering around the bookstore, picking up anything that catches my eye or looks interesting.. Usually I end in the fantasy section more often than not,... I just can't say no to a good fantasy story... my true weakness I guess...
 
Murphyz, you read on the way to work?? Hope you're taking the tube and not driving :D

I have various ways of choosing a new book, sometimes its one ive got but never got around to reading that suddenly takes my fancy, sometimes i go and impulse buy at the bookstore.

Fairly often i 'stalk' books at the bookstore, i keep going back and looking at them everytime i'm in there but dont buy them for ages!! Then one day i'll snap (generally a day when im spending so much other money that i wont notice another £10 :p

Phil
 
Phil, it's nice to know that I'm not the only one who "stalks" books. I thought it was some sort of bizarre character flaw of mine. At worst, now, it is a "condition".
 
Usually I get turned off when someone tells me to read a book because "it's so good", because it feels like an obligation then, and I'm not too fond of obligations. Most of the time I just wander aimlessly through the bookshop or library and pick what looks like a good read.

The stalking does sound familiar by the way. :)

(Thread: How do you choose the book you'll read next)
 
Usually I get turned off when someone tells me to read a book because "it's so good", because it feels like an obligation then
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Oh, I know how that is, a lot of time when people tell me to read something it feels like I have to, and therefore, don't want to. My dad has been shoving The Da Vinci Code (it doesn'y really seem like my kind of book) in my face for weeks now. I keep telling him I'll get to it when I have time, but I'm homeschooled and he would be the teacher so something tells me if I don't, he'll find some way to turn it into a project of some kind -_-
 
I usually just wait for the paperback editions from my favourite authors to come out, e.g Pratchett, King and Koontz. This involves going into bookshops and gazing longingly at the hardback editions, before deciding that I can't afford £14.99, and anyway the paperback won't be long, before reluctantly returning it to the shelf. Cue a year of increasingly impatient waiting!!

Other than this, I sometimes look at recommendations on Amazon, or buy other books from recently discovered (by me) authors, such as Lian Hearn or Mary Hoffman. :)
 
I often depend on recommendations - it helps me to start a book which will be a pleasure to read, not a waste of time. But, I usually listen only to my friends and family's pieces of advice, because I know their taste. So, I don't even read proffessional reviews in newspapers.

Sometimes I use people's recommendations as a kind of "anti-encouragements" - if he likes this book, don't even look at it!;)
 
Halo wrote: This involves going into bookshops and gazing longingly at the hardback editions, before deciding that I can't afford £14.99
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Oh yeah, i know that feeling!! I nearly always try and wait for the paperback edition, but sometimes im sorely tempted, especially when they bring down the price of the hardback just before the paperback edition comes out!

Phil :)
 
I am a browser, I love going to the book store and spending a couple hours looking. Friends recs.do influence me and I also get caught pilfering friends bookshelves...they pilfer mine as well so all is fair!
 
I browse my collection, friends collections, bookstores - I am also a book stalker and I find something that fits the moment. OR grab something to fill in "non-busy" hours at work :)
 
Ashamed to say.... I have an entire bookcase of books waiting to be read. I buy books that I fancy, put them on the shelves and get round to reading them eventually.
 
Leapylees, you should be proud!! You are not only one, I am the same. Everytime I go to shop to spend on books and put them on my bookcase wait for me to read them. I enjoy to drool over them and begin choosy as well!!! :)
 
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