How we select books to read

[TheDustyZebra]

It's mostly browsing at the library for me, I suppose, though I've looked up a lot of recommendations from people around here lately.

And I mostly buy from Amazon, because I have Prime and a Kindle app for my iPad. Easy purchasing of ebooks and free shipping wins the day. If I want something old, I look at AbeBooks and eBay, among others. And there is a lovely man named Horrible Ray who sells some educational things that I get for my kids (Life of Fred and Murderous Maths, for starters), and I love him to death in this age because he prefers to be paid with a check and not until after you've received and approved your books. He actually sends you the books and then you send him a check. How refreshing is that?

I do look at Amazon's "recommended for you" and wander around reading reviews of things, and occasionally I stumble across something I'm willing to try. Sometimes I just go and order it from the library first.

And, of course, there are my go-to authors whose books I will always buy.

 

[hitmouse]

Selection and availability have both changed over time. I still do not buy electronic books.
Now practically anything published anywhere in the world is available for order online, usually through Amazon, though eBay and Abebooks are pretty useful, and if I want something really specific (like the final book in the Dumarest saga) I look in Fantastic Fiction.

In terms of selction, in the pre-internet days of innocence, it was looking at the covers in bookshops and in the library. The Visual Encylopedia of Science Fiction ed. Brian Ash was tremendously helpful, even if the American writers were generally not carried in British bookshops in the 70s and 80s. I made an annual trip to Andromeda Books in Birmingham to find SF imports, and I still have hundreds of tatty old second hand books and SF magazines marked 25p which I bought from a number of dank warren-like second-hand bookshops as a teenager. I picked up some really obscure stuff back in the day: basically I had a mental "want list" of several dozen books, some of which would occasionally turn up in the backshelves, and if not, then I would likely find something interesting anyway.

Now most of the booksellers, both new and secondhand have gone. I live in a city with only a Waterstones and an Oxfam bookshop, and I miss the randomness and thrill of bookhunting in the old days.

Forums such as this one are probably my best prompt for finding new authors.

 

[thaddeus6th]

Ah, my mistake, Vertigo.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

Honestly, I see a title and cover that attracts my interest, read the blurb, check out the first few pages and if I like the story and the voice then I read it.

Occasionally, Simon Mayo's book club suggests one I fancy.

But usually I have a yearning to read something in particular and go to see if it has been written yet.

 

[Extollager]

... To continue my response:

Reviews, recommendations also influence me, and, occasionally, cover art will move me to pick up a book that I end up reading; I'm sure lots of people picked up Byatt's Possession attracted by the "Beguiling of Merlin" cover.

But I don't read much brand-new fiction, compared to some Chronsfolk.

 

[psikeyhackr]

In the good olde days, before the 90s, I could judge pretty well from the books on the shelves in the stores.

Since then I read lots of reviews and it didn't do much good until I discovered that Jo Walton and I have similar tastes.

psik

 

[Pyan]

1) Favourite authors
2) Reviews - here, specialist mags, online
3) Personal recommendations
4) Browsing (rare, and getting rarer - see below)


An interesting side effect of owning a Kindle is that I'm very much more likely to take a chance on an unfamiliar author than seeing their book in a bookshop. With even a normal size paperback starting from £7.99, it's a lot cheaper to discover that I really don't like something if it's cost me half as much from Amazon.

And yes, I'm aware of the 'evil' of that company, and how it's going to destroy the traditional bookshop, but I don't buy books as a charitable gesture. I'll keep buying my A-list authors on the day of publication, in hardback, at full price if need be - but there's so much dross around these days, it's very hard to justify taking a chance in the traditional way.

 

[K. Riehl]

I follow authors and I try new ones based on recommendations.

In my teens I could try 5 new authors at time by spending only $20. Now you can only buy two paperbacks for the same amount. That's a barrier to the"it looks interesting, probably worth a couple of dollars to try it" style of finding new authors.

I have been in a special position for most of my life as I worked for a large book chain. I had access to publisher reps., advance readers, and customers who would come in with recommendations. I also had family working in libraries who would bring home titles that looked interesting. The result from all of this was my collection running into the thousands. I have pruned it down to 2 full rooms but I still have an addiction.

Nowadays I look for recommendations at websites and talk to the SFF section managers at the local large bookstores.

 

[wam]

I've been luckier than most. The city I live in has chain bookshops (Waterstones), specialists , remainders, second hand shops and libraries. There are a lot less of each than there used to be. Add to that, I've found various sources for digital copies some of which may not be legit. I occasionally take books for review at the local SF group - I have just finished Mitch Benn's first two books after a weekend sick and they were more than worth the effort.
Why do I choose particular books?
Personal Recommendations - surprisingly most of the people that recommend books to me, I take negatively. The trick is to pay attention to the reasons why.
Lists - the xxx books that everyone should read, poll results, awards, bestseller lists.
The book - anything that is blatantly a one-man-operation should generally be avoided. Books over 500 pages should not be considered lightly. Cliches in the advertising are also negative indicators.
That said, there are all kinds of reasons for reading something. I've even bought the odd book for its cover. Most of the time it's just a sense of trying to find something different or looking for names I know.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

I've just run across a site called BookBub that apparently hunts down free and deeply discounted books and lists them, along with sending a daily email to notify you of ones in your area of interest.

Anyone have any experience with this? I only find one reference to it in a search here, but I could be missing something.

 

[VALIS13]

Just signed up to BookBub, let's see what they recommend..

Cheers Zebra!

 

[tinkerdan]

I never judge a book by its cover. But I do like good covers. I don't necessarily pass on one with a bad cover unless it's obnoxiously bad.

I will check out recommendations, but other people have different tastes and they judge the book by its cover. So I will look at the sample and decide.

I used to be author centric and buy all of my favorite author's work but that was when it was hard to find new stuff. Now I'm just as hard on the favorite authors as I am with a new one. I have to read the first part.

I've rarely read a sample that knocked me out of the book in the first paragraph so it might take a few pages to decide. I guess I'm more forgiving than some people and I don't generally harbor any agendas before jumping into the work. If I'm in a bookstore and people start staring at me it's probably time to buy that book because I haven't put it down yet.

On Amazon if a book does not have a sample I don't buy it. Even so sometimes the samples get so fractured that I also don't buy it. If the first page doesn't grab me I need contiguous pages not samples here and there and everywhere.

If the ebook cost the same as the paper edition I buy the paper because they are my first choice. If the ebook is low enough I do enjoy the kindle. I pick up a lot of self published this way and always read the first part to be sure I don't end up with too many unpleasant surprises.

 

[alchemist]

I prefer to try new authors for new experiences, rather than stay to what I know. So I'll choose a library book by the cover, blurb and a look inside. But before I spend cash, I'll probably need a seal of approval from the Chrons -- I've found Amazon reviews to be as valid a method as examining sheep entrails.

 

[JonH]

I hardly ever select from bookshops now. Borders (in Leeds) sadly disappeared, and whilst Waterstones is good it's over a fiver just to go into town and come back. The last time I was there I did see the excellent Legionary Unofficial Manual (which I later bought, along with others in the series).

I thought Forbidden Planet moved to a larger shop in Leeds earlier this year. I've not tried it yet, as I tend to buy books as presents in Leeds, and Waterstones caters for all the people I'm buying for, whereas I buy for myself in London.

 

[Bick]

In order of importance:
1) From recommendations from Chrons members (esp. particular members who's views I trust)
2) Based on awards and recommendations seen elsewhere, e.g. Goodreads, Worlds Without End, James Wallace Harris' "Classics of SF"
3) General net browsing at the likes of Book Depository or similar to see if anything randomly catches my eye
4) By the cover (not put off by bad covers esp., but I can be 'put-on' by good ones)
5) Browsing in shops (these days this is often used book shops, as new book shops don't sell much SF here in NZ. In fact, NZ doesn't have any good large book shops anymore).

 

[J-Sun]

I decided to get statistical rather than subjective about this. I last went to Barnes & Noble (bricks and mortar store that sells coffee, CDs & DVDs and, oh yeah, magazines and books) to pick up a copy of Analog in June 2013. Since I've subscribed, I haven't been back, though I still mean to. So my purchases for the past year+ since then break down by place like so:

65% local used stores/35% online (but still all physical books):

• 55% used store #1
• 19% Amazon
• 16% abebooks (note to Vertigo and thaddeus - abe is now just a subsidiary of Amazon, though still better)
• 9% used store #2
• 1% used store #3

As far as the reasons, for the last quarter they break down like so:

• 22% from online shopping for known authors
• 20% from just browsing used stores. (Mostly history books, science books, etc., where it's usually the subject more than the author that gets me to buy it.)
• 15% from used browsing for known authors
• 11% replacement copies while browsing the used stores
• 7% browsing the used stores and buying it if it was on my personal subset of my own "great novels" meta-list
• 7% browsing the used stores and buying it if I recalled it from a list of hard SF
• 7% online purchases of SF anthologies that had one or more stories I specifically wanted
• 9% various one shots including a Tony Daniel novel - I'd read some at least okay stories of his and came across old reviews for Guardian of Night in the magazines and it had been published by Baen and sounded like fun. I ordered a used copy online and it was fun.

That leads to how someone becomes a "known author". Aside from Daniel in June, the only new authors I've read in the past year all came in February. I read some online reviews of Madeleine Ashby's vN which made it sound cool and I was able to find some very weird but interesting online short fiction from her, as well as read one from an anthology I had, so I picked up the novel when I saw it in used store #1. It was okay but I'm not real inspired to get the sequel. I hate the way almost every author these days debuts with a series of novels - among the many things wrong with this, presumptuousness has to rank high. I read a bunch of online hysteria about Ann Leckie and I'm a sucker for spaceships and AI so regrettably bought her book new without reading any fiction from her before and that's the last time I listen to "internet buzz". And it already has a sequel out that I will not be getting. And, as mentioned, I'd gotten back in touch with Analog and read three consecutive very good to great stories by Brad R. Torgersen so bought his first book (Lights in the Deep, a collection!) as soon as it came out.

So, obviously, having good short fiction I can read and being reputably reviewed are major factors, along with being intrinsically interesting and, more and more, by not being in series and not generating internet hysteria. And, maybe going farther than wam, by not having a 500+ page novel - I now always check page count and, of the last 29 SF novels I've read, 26 were less than 500 pages and the other three were by known authors and were from 500-566 pages.

 

[Bick]

That's quite a collection of statistics, J-Sun! I don't think I could dig up the necessary data to produce that kind of detail. I sympathize with your page count criterion as I like shorter works too on the whole. Sometimes it's nice to get lost in a really long book, but often as not I'd rather it was edited down. I just started a 750+ page tome, but that is unusual. It seems rare to find many novels under 350-400 pp these days.

 

[Vertigo]

16% abebooks (note to Vertigo and thaddeus - abe is now just a subsidiary of Amazon, though still

Yeah, I'm aware of that J-Sun; I'm holding my breath! However, as I have been using them, I have built up a black and white list of the actual vendors suppliers that provide a prompt and good service and the ones that don't. Through this I'm finding that I'm actually getting ninety-five percent of my abe books from just 4 or 5 actual vendors. So probably not too onerous to swap from Abe to going to them direct.

 

[thaddeus6th]

I didn't know that about Abebooks. Cheers for the info.

 

[J-Sun]

It seems rare to find many novels under 350-400 pp these days.

Very true.

Yeah, I'm aware of that J-Sun; I'm holding my breath! However, as I have been using them, I have built up a black and white list of the actual vendors suppliers that provide a prompt and good service and the ones that don't. Through this I'm finding that I'm actually getting ninety-five percent of my abe books from just 4 or 5 actual vendors. So probably not too onerous to swap from Abe to going to them direct.

I could probably figure the statistics on that for myself, as well. Generally, like you, I do seem to get most things from a few sellers. I was worried about one regular seller the other day, as I got a pile of dust and loose pages instead of a book and was originally offered 50% off when I complained but they eventually gave me a full refund. Unfortunately, ordering a replacement copy from another seller still cost me an extra buck. So they still qualify as one of the handful that seems to have a good stock and almost always sends good quality and makes it right if something goes wrong.

I didn't know that about Abebooks. Cheers for the info.

Glad it was useful - I know it was important (and disappointing) to me when I found out.