two words: dirty parts.

If I'm in the mood for it. I just gave my sister a unread copy of Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver. It was a gift that was going unread. I passed it on to her, who is a voracious reader, to say the least. If you're like her, she'll read just about anything, she just needs something somewhat interesting to read. She told me today that Prodigal Summer is getting better. I might read it when she if finished. One character has a reoccurring dream of having sex with a giant moth. Is it my cup of tea? Am I in the mood for moth sex? Maybe. Maybe not. Holding on to, or reading, a book depends on my mood. If it's just plain bad, it's a no-brainer. A recent example is Chasing Cezanne. It was a gift as well. I like Peter Mayle a lot, but this book didn't do it for me. It's weak with poor reviews to boot. It's not worth my time.

I have two autographed novels by Nora Roberts. My MIL frequents that city she lives and Roberts owns a bookstore. It was a very nice thought but I will probably never read these. It's not my kind of book. But you never know, I might be in a situation where I need something to read. Once, during the hurricanes of 2004 I was desperate enough to read One True Thing by Anna Quindlen. I might be in a situation where I need the books by Roberts. :-)

I would advise to keep every single book that you plan on reading, no matter what other people think of it. If it sucks you in, all the better. That's the best kind of book! It's what we all hope for.

sorry, that was long-winded. I seem to have just written a book.

In bookstores, I (sometimes foolishly) go buy the cover and title. If those are enough to get me to pick up the book in question, I'll read the back blurb, the first page (or preface/wee little blurb people put in front of the story after the title page), and sometimes, if I'm still feeling ambigious, I'll flip to a couple of random sections in the book (usually somewhere near the middle or so) and quickly scan a page or two.

(As far as my determining title/cover worthiness, it depends on my mood.)

Every so often, I'll pick up a book because I've heard/seen mentions of it somewhere. Which is how I got sucked into Twilight, oddly enough.

I go through this problem all the time (I work with books, so besides buying them alot, I get them for free). When a book is on my shelf at home, if it's been there a while, I try to remember why I loved it so much to get it to begin with. If I can't and it has some resale value, I usually get rid of it.

Lately, I've also been measuring books against whether I could pick them up from the library if I changed my mind later.

I liked Prodigal Summer, Lori.

I mainly decide what I want to read from other people's recommendations (see all the "what are you reading" threads I start on Mecha). Or I get on a kick of a certain author and read all their stuff. Or on a biography binge, or something like that.

If you liked it gaspode, I will definitely give it a chance. :-)

For me, it was moving five times in four years, starting out with a pretty substantial library. After that, it was for me like determining the sex of baby chicks -- there's no real methodology, you just know when you do it enough times.

My best advice to you is one the publishers and booksellers don't want you to follow: get a library card, read every book you want to read through the library, and only buy the ones that you finish adoring so much that you know you'll read them again.

By that standard, we probably still have about fifty books too many, but that's likely hundreds less than we would otherwise be dealing with.

Um. Just the usual: reviews, recommendations from friends, the author's other books.

Or in the library, if it looks interesting from the title, the blurb, and looking inside it.

I have way too many books, though I've read all but a handful. I've have developed no useful system for discarding them.

I open a book to a random page and see if I like the writing. If I don't, I try one more random page. If I don't like that one either I don't bother.

If the writing's okay I'll probably like the book.

I get a few from recommendations, too, but then I'm in a bind if I hate it and my friend LOOOOVED it so much.

(Just had that happen with Water for Elephants. HATED it! HATED! But I read it because people kept telling me how much they loved it.)

I usually go by the cover, the blurb on the back and by reading a few lines of the first page. There are some writers I always buy - I have the entire Sue Grafton 'alphabet' series, which are fun and light reading.

Occasionally I'll buy something if I've read a good review of it, or I'll try something else from an author I've enjoyed before. I've been disappointed that way though - The Secret History by Donna Tartt was a masterpiece but The Little Friend, her second novel, was, I thought, disjointed and petered off at the end with no resolution, as if she'd tired of writing it.

We have a Paperback Exchange at work where you can swap books and I've picked up things in there I never would have bought but have really enjoyed. This one I kept passing on time and time again but eventually, after sifting through the Dan Browns and 'yummy mummy' romances, I picked it up. I really, really enjoyed it.

I've made sure I don't wait to buy a book at the airport. On a flight home from the US I hurriedly picked this up, not realising it was a sappy romance. Fuck, it was bad. But I had nothing else to read, having done Sky Mall to death on the way over. And there we no movies as the DVD on the plane was broken. Gah!

Start a bunch of books at once. Then you'll gravitate to the best one and want to pick it up the most. Maybe then you can get rid of the lowest-ranking one?

I don't. I merely decide which book I want to read next. My eventual death will take care of the rest.

Maybe try asking yourself the opposite question... what makes you sorry that you read a book? As in, "wow, those are wasted moments of my life that I'll never get back?"

Personally, If a book sucks me in after 30 pages, then that tells me I should keep going unless there's a compelling reason not to. But I don't usually find the compelling reason until the sucky, stupid, cop-out ending or something like that.

I read everything I can get my hands on, which means I get most of my books from the library (usually by author: I read everything by Vonnegut in Jan and Feb. Now I'm reading Margaret Atwood and Cormac McCarthy).

Otherwise, I get a lot of books from my mother, who buys them used, reads them, and then mails them to me, or else borrows them from my aunt, forgets, and mails them to me. Those books often are of dubious quality, but I'll read them anyway, unless they're part of a series and I haven't read the first book yet (that often happens).

Like Eidetecker, I really only have to decide what to read next. That's determined by library due date, proximity of the book to my location when I desire to start reading, and genre.

My best advice to you is one the publishers and booksellers don't want you to follow: get a library card, read every book you want to read through the library, and only buy the ones that you finish adoring so much that you know you'll read them again.

hey! i work in publishing and actively encourage you all to use that library card like no tomorrow. libraries are seriously under-utilized in this nation, and are a fantastic resource for the mind. the more avid readers we foster in this world, the better the minds of this world, and all the better to have a world full of thoughtful people. :) more avid readers is much better for publishing than people who just don’t read.

to echo you here, if people find a book or series they enjoy, they are going to want their own copy. oh! and um, libraries have to purchase books too.

however, i think $7.99 for a mass market paperback is well worth the investment price when you consider the entertainment return... and potential repeating return on the product. cheaper than a movie ticket, shorter lines at the concession stand, hours to savor the contents.

i don’t know if it’s a misconception but i constantly hear that publishing, like any other industry is full of money-hungry vipers. most of us, and i think that’s about 99.9% work for the love of reading rather than the money - it's not a very lucrative career pursuit compared to i would say, finance, banking, or even other medias. i do it for love baby and want people to share my love of reading!