How do you choose a book?

How do you choose a book if you haven't already received a recommendation?

I find I am quite successful just by looking for a title and a cover that appeals to me! Then I just read the first page and if I like that, then I will read the book. I never read the blurb if I can help it because that gives away the start of the story. Similarly with introductions; I always leave those until I have finished the book because I don't want to be given any hint as to how the story progresses.

This would never work with a film of course! That must be why they need trailers ... although I wish they told you rather less of the story in the trailer. You need to attract people in though; it must be a difficult balancing act.

In which your bibliophile is bloody but unbowed

Monday's reading was Jodi Picoult's Plain Truth. I am so pleased to have started reading Jodi Picoult, whom I avoided for years because I thought she wrote about child abuse and other "issues", and I never enjoy issue-driven fiction. Happily I was wrong about this great author. Certainly she does use contemporary situations and dilemmas as her starting point but she also tells a gripping story with believeable characters. Plain Truth is centred on the Amish community in Pennsylvania. Images of the Amish are now familiar to most of us, but Picoult demolishes some misconceptions as well as teasing out the mysterious story of Katie Fisher and her baby. Well worth reading.

Tuesday was book-free as I managed to spend the time in A&E after fainting and smacking my face into the road. I could have done with a book actually, after I felt better. Quite rightly the staff were busy dealing with more urgent cases so we had to do a lot of waiting around. Surely your intrepid reader should have had a book in her handbag at such a time!

Wednesday I spent recovering and then reading Val McDermid's Wire in the Blood. This was a new author for me. I generally like crime novels especially when they concern the psychology of criminals so this one about the profiling of a serial killer should have been ideal for me. However although I enjoyed it overall, for me there were too many characters, some of whom were dropped from the story part of the way through. None of the characters seemed particularly sympathetic either.

Day 50; Book 47

Latest books

It's a good job I've started numbering my books because it looks like I have been off track for a few days. *Note to self: must do better*

On Friday I read Isabel Wolff's Forget Me Not. This is of the chick lit, romance type. It's well written with a heroine who has the dream job of garden designer. As in a many novels, it seems just a case of taking a degree or other course in your chosen field, and then simply setting up a successful business or landing the exact job you wanted. This of course if rather different from how real life can turn out. I enjoyed the novel which at first I thought was going to be predictable. In some ways it was but it others it confounded my expectations. The character of Citronella was satisfyingly monstrous! My only quibble with the writing was the depiction of the little girl, who from the time she was a toddler would talk of "Mum" and "Dad" and in my experience little tots would say "Mummy" and "Daddy". It's just one of those little details which nevertheless can annoy you a lot!

On Saturday I read Joanna Trollope's Brother and Sister. Thanks to David I have a mini Trollope pile and was quickly engrossed in this one. Joanna Trollope is never afraid to set up an emotional scenario and to explore people's feelings and reactions honestly. Well-written and absorbing.

Finally I read the last of my current supply of Agatha Raisins, Agatha Raisin and the Day the Floods Came. It was another adventure in which the men in Agatha's life support her and let her down in equal measures. It turns out that the story of James Lacey is not yet over ... Excellent characterisation as usual, with Mrs Bloxby gently laughing at Agatha's excesses.

Day 47; Book 45

Greetings, fellow reading blogger!

I've heard from Helen, whose blog is here. She has a target this year of 250 books, but thinks she will make 300. She gave me a good tip, which is to number each book as I post about it ... if I combine it with the day, that should enable me to see at a glance if I am on target.

Newspaper headlines

I love punning newspaper headlines! At least if they are good - but what makes one good? I'm not quite sure, to be honest. Have a look at these though, which are hilarious. The first is from The Metro of 25 September 2008, where an innocent man found out that his old SIM card from his phone was being used illegally. He called his story, "I paid for the SIMS of others".

My all-time favourite has to be the Sun's headline from February 2000 when little Inverness Caledonian unexpectedly beat football league giants Celtic. The Sun's inspired headline was "Super Caley go ballistic, Celtic are atrocious".

Reading and rating

I should really think of some way of rating the books I've been reading, like 5 quills for Excellent and one quill for Meh, not so good. I need to find some appropriate little symbols I could import into my blog.

Perhaps I should also give an idea of which readers each book would appeal to. The problem is I like so many different kinds of books myself, and I suspect lots of other people are like that too. How would you decide?

I'll leave this thought to simmer for a while.

Agatha Raisin and the Love from Hell by M C Beaton

It's a great feeling which all readers will recognise when you come across a new author and realise they've written lots of books. Off you go to the charity shops or Abebooks for second-hand or out-of-print works, your friends' bookshelves if you have kind and understanding friends*, or you may even go to a proper bookshop and buy new copies (not in hardback though!)

But then after every high must come the low, and you realise that you have made your way nearly to the end of your new favourite author ... I'm not quite at that stage yet with the Agatha Raisins but the end is in sight. I must ration them out. Agatha Raisin and the Love from Hell was an excellent read once again, with some rather surprising happenings (as well as the usual murder of course). Well worth a read.

*butters them up*