Reading habits

[elora_c]

Recently, I've had several conversations about different reading habits. Apparently, my way of selecting and reading books is not normal. Before Amazon, my way of finding new books was to wander along the shelves and look at covers. That's one reason I didn't like going to the library: all they show is the spine. (The other reason being that I

Comments

[woodwindy]

Nope -- I prefer to read one at a time. If I'm traveling or something is inconveniently sized, I might have a couple of books going at once.

Back in the day I used to be able to browse successfully, but that was when I was haunting my local library's smallish SF section and pretty much anything I put my hand on would be of interest. :) These days I find myself either buying the same authors over and over (or new authors who come with blurbs from my favorites!) or relying on the recommendations in the Year's Best Fantasy & Horror collections. Covers are tricky -- I got burned a few times before I realized that at least one publishing house had taken to putting their best artists on their cheesiest books.

[word_geek]

*cough*Darrell K. Sweet!*cough*

[elora_c]

Way back when, if it had a Michael Whelan cover, I'd at least pick it up to read the blurb. I don't think I've seen one of those in a while.

Nowadays, I just let word_geek do all the legwork of looking for new books for me for Christmas and birthdays. :) While complaining about how long it takes my favorite authors to write books.

[captain_squid]

I'm also a one-book man. Unless I'm going on a camping trip when I'm halfway through reading The Red Book of Westmarch. Then I might have to compromise.

[fluffiana]

I only read one at a time, but the impact is mitigated by how quickly I tend to read them (just ask jamused how long it takes for me to return his borrowed books).

Libraries are well aware of the difficulty of attracting people by spine only. I happen to know that in recent years your particular local library has been making a concerted effort to display more books with the covers fully visible, but of course they can only do so much.

I don't really have a browsing problem with books (I am attracted by titles rather than covers), but I do with clothes (or Christmas gifts) which is why I am so averse to shopping. I have to know what I'm looking for; I can't just randomly select out of what happens to be there. Do you find other shopping challenging as well, or just books?