SCL

Ok, you asked for the most ridiculous sign I look for.

I look at the font they used on the cover.

I’m a design nerd, and I think I can tell a lot about a book by the font they chose. Dated, current, masculine, way too girly for my taste, trying too hard… it’s all there.

Of course there are much more valid reasons to pick up a book, like who the author is, how much he or she knows about the subject, etc. Those may be things that keep me interested in a book I’m reading, but they have to catch my eye first.

A little shallow, perhaps, but it hasn’t failed me yet.

(p.s.: my husband, the pastor, will read anything with a Simpson’s quote, no matter what the book is about. So I’d love to make his day by winning this for him!)

I go by smell. New books have a splendid odor to begin with, but if it’s an author I like (or have heard good things about), and the flipping pages in front of my nose leaves a refreshing scent, I’m hooked.

Sure, everybody likes a snazzy title, nice textures and a spine that makes your bookshelf look colour-coded. But the one criteria that murders the rest is whether the pages cut me. No, not like the incisiveness of the words, though a bit of that won’t be turned down. No, I’m talking about massive papercuts. Like, literary lascerations. If a book takes off one of my fingers while I’m still at the bookstore, there’s no way I’m taking it home with me, I’m off to the doctor’s. I’m not even taking it if the clerk says I have to now that I’ve got my blood all over it. It’s hard to lose one’s fingers to a book. And it’s definitely hard to hold that book in your hands without feeling bitter about it.

When I am looking for a book, I usually read about half of it while standing in the bookstore (Thank G-d for speed-reading courses in high school). If I’ve read at least 1/3 of it and I want to keep reading, I check my schedule. If I’ve got to go, then I’ll plunk down the money or I’ll try to remember my place and hide it behind a Lord of the Rings compendium to retrieve at a later time. Otherwise, I wait for it to appear at the local library.

I generally just read the back of the inside of the cover…also all the comments from other authors that are always inevitably there. If that has piqued my interest I’ll read a random sampling from a random location inside. Cool graphics pn the cover help also….

Pink, being the only man in the house I have become desensitized to pink, but when it comes to ‘my stuff’ (even books) if it has Pink font, pink background, etc I’m out. Can’t read it. Even if it is an author that I like. Once I get past that, I usually go for male authors Not sure why, maybe it’s less flowery details and more details about leg drops. (at least with fiction)As a Christian am I even allowed to read fiction? I mean other than The Shack.

wv- mandaltr: As opposed to an empty alter, this one is manned.

I look to see if it was edited by D.A. Carson and has an introduction by J.I. Packer, which narrows it down to about 52% of theology books currently being published. Then I look for an endorsement by at least one other person with initials in their name or who is a professor at a seminary I have heard of. Sometimes I also pay attention to the content.

First it’s the cover.

Second the title.

If the first two make it through then I will read the back cover.

If I like that I will actually open it and flip through.

Lastly I look at the price and if that doesn’t fit then I add it to my library list.

Firstly: I have to be able to flip to the first page of the first chapter and have it hook me immediately.

Secondly: If I can’t hold the book in my hands, someone I trust has to hand it to me and say: “Read this. Trust me, you’ll love it.”

These comments are chalked full of great advice for someone planning to finalize a book this month. Not hatin’, just saying!

Anyways when it comes to picking a book it is all about what is written on the back cover (or inside cover if the author is pretentious enough to think that a picture with a cheesy smile would be more appealing). For fiction, it has got to be enough of a tease that I will be interested. For non-fiction, it needs to sound like the book is going to be sarcastic or at least make fun of something someone holds dear.

wv:hedeema – I would have sold more books, but I didn’t photoshop out the bad case of hedeema I had in my cheesy smile picture.

If the description of the book says anything about C.S Lewis or G.K. Chesterton, I instantly want to read it, even if it says:

“This is the book that shows why C.S. Lewis is the most the most well known author whom nobody actually reads”.

thomas w.

The most rediculous thing I look for someone giving me the book for free.

The second most rediculous thing I look for is a bunch of people I disagee with bashing it.

- Paul

Well, I hate for everyone to know how ridiculous my method is for making the final decision on a book, but often times if I’m not entirely sure if i want to take a book home with me, then I’ll flip to a random page and look at the the layout of Chapter Title at the top and page number at the bottom.

If It is seems as though they put some effort and thought into making that tiniest point of a book intriguing, then i have a good feeling they put thought and effort into the rest of the book as well.

Weird? Yes. But it’s just the cross i bear. lol.

WV- Excen- A Cen that you used to date, but things just didn’t work out.

Well, I generally pick based on a theme that grabs me…if it’s a theme that has always spoken to my heart, if you will (gender issues, joy, awakenings in faith, marginalized people, community)…
Otherwise – and I can’t believe I didn’t mention this during the Crazy Love book club! – if there’s an endorsement by Kirk Cameron, it must be good. Do you think Chan knows Cameron? Or do you think Chan thought, “if I could just get that Christian star from Growing Pains and Left Behind to endorse me”…?

My method of book-picking is usually pretty haphazard. I walk into a bookstore and gaze around, kind of waiting to see if anything ANYWHERE catches my eye (or my nose, as the case may be). Seriously, sometimes I’ll be standing in the classics section at Borders, and I’ll grab a random book and smell it. Other times I flip through the pages and see how many times I spot words that begin with “k”. Ultimately, when it comes to purchasing a book I’ve never read, if it looks or smells interesting enough, it comes down to how much it costs. I am ALL about those bargain aisles!

definitely has to be typographically breaking it down into some nuggets to appease my inner ADHD.

i read the last couple of paragraphs. if they are not too long and seem to be something that i’d like to dive into a bit further, i’ll read it.

Christian George came and spoke in chapel at my college last year. It was unanimously ranked by my friends as the weirdest chapel of our college careers. 3 direct quotes -

1. “God Wal-marted Himself for us.”
2. “God threw the planets into place like frisbees.”
3. “Christ does not need Viagra to statisfy His bride.”

As you can see, we have not forgotten his strange and infulential words. Please give us a free book. It might redeem our opinions of him.

Doh.

I love used book stores. I can stand for hours just browsing at nothing specific. If a book looks like it was loved and devoured by its original reader, it usually goes home with me. I avoid the ones where they have 5 copies and the binding isn’t even cracked.

My decision often comes down to whether it looks like I’ll sprain my wrist if I actually read this thing.

First, the cover must catch my eye. I then test the waters by reading the cover flaps. If the description there intrigues me, I then move on the the author’s picture. If the author trying to hard to poe? Are they casually leaning against a railing or sitting back in a chair with a relaxed smile as if to say “I hope you enjoy my book. I’ve tried to write something that will entertain and beguile you.” Or is the author posing on a railing, chin in hand looking serious as if to say “My book is brilliant, it is intelligent and was bourne out of my desire to explore the human condition. If you don’t like it, you’re an imbecile”. The smug writers get put right back down. If their picture carries that air of fun and welcoming, I then begin to flip through. Are there chapter titles? Are the chapters long and descriptive or short and snappy? Last but not least, if a passage piques my interest, I begin to read, get lost in the story, and find that the book store employees are just about to lock me in the store, I will purcahse.

1. cover
2. description
3. writers’ picture
4. it’s what’s on the inside that counts

I’d like this book, Jon, but I have to admit that I can’t determine if I’ll like a book from a glance. I can tell you that I know when I will NOT like a book – if it has a cheesy looking author with a vague, emergent, self-help title. I need to know that this books is about JESUS. I don’t need a long version of O Magazine! (No offense, O. Love you boo.)

Anyway, the way I determine if I like a book is I literally keep going to the book store to read a chapter at a time until I know I like the book for sure. Sometimes I read multiple chapters. Yeah, I’m serious. I’m not going to lie. I’ve read 1/3 of a book – even Christian books – in the book store before actually purchasing it. I most recently did this with Matthew Paul Turner’s Churched, which I highly recommend.

Besides if they didn’t want me to do it, they shouldn’t put those soft chairs in there. It’s practically tempting me. Calling out saying, “Hey man, whatchu know ’bout this cushion?! Come getchu some of this!” Instead they should have put those hard, metal, church basement folding chairs.

Anyway, I figure taking a book home that I’m not going to read or stop reading in the middle is no help to me and definitely no help to the person who actually would have finished it if I would have finished it had I left it on the shelf.

While we’re at it, I’ll admit that when I was a kid, I took one or two Gideon Bibles home from hotels before. I wasn’t finished reading my story. Don’t they want me reading the word at home?

I know right now many of you are shaking your heads disapprovingly at my sense of logic, but it’s all good. In the words of Bobby Brown’s ex-wife: It’s not right, but it’s okay.

And I’m out!

I avoid all books with more than one title.
Example:
Kitten Kaboodle or A Cat’s Story
No, if I can’t trust the author to make up his mind about a title I can’t trust him about much else.

Some writers try to disguise the fact that they have two titles by using a colon. (Zombie Deathmatch: One Woman’s Search for Love Or they call it a subtitle. I’m not fooled by this.

considering the whole college factor into it…when i’m book shopping (which is once in a blue moon because the education system has all my money), books that look nothing like a text book and look a little scandalous are awesomely appealing.
take bucknaked faith- short, pictures of clothes and a trailer…and naked is in the title. definitely one that will cause a minor debate to break out on a christian campus!

I have 5 quick rules that I use when going into the Christian bookstore.
1. I seek to see if three superstar mega church pastors left endorsements on the back of the book; if it has the blessing of the Trinitarian endorsement then I look at the front cover.

2.Does the cover have some type of holy symbol a dove, fish, or cross it especially helpful if the symbol is done with a rugged cheesy 90′s Christian rock look all Jagged edges and all pixilated.

3. Is the authors face is on it really big where the stunning and vibrant portrait looks like they done it at Glamour Shots and had one to many spray tans… this is a good indication that the book will be very spiritually deep.

4. I also like a good self-help title… if the title starts with “YOU” or “Winner” or my favorite Phil 4:13 word “Can”

5. When I begin to search chapters is there on each chapter page a zany quirky quote italicized and grayed… then I finally know that the book will be edifying by meeting this Five-Fold outline!

I love to book shop at thrift stores, so I’m not too picky about covers or fonts or whatever…but I’m a total publisher snob.

Zombies.

If a book passes the initial flip through,I look for C.S.Lewis quotes or endorsements, especially the endorsements. I recently bought the book “Gormanghast”, by Alexander Peake. While I was reeled in by what was advertised as a “Gothic Romance”, I was little concerned that it might be trashy at best, or well, given high number of ghosts as characters, that it would be a little well satanic at worst. But after bravely purchasing, I brought it home and after pealing off the sale sticker, I knew it was all going to be alright when I saw the C.S. Lewis endorsement across the top! In the absence of a C.S. Lewis quote, I generally just look for a picture of a lion on the cover.

If it has a title pronunciation on the cover like this book, I’m pretty sure I’ll like it!

I’d have a look at the blurb and see if it might possibly have some sort of deep significance and might help me on my walk with God

if it would help facilitate a bowel movement (figuratively and literally) it goes in my man-bag on my bookshelf…

the smell of the book – completely retarded, but true…

Very simply, I use the T.K.S. (Thomas Kinkade Scale).

The closer the books cover is to resembling anything by the “Painter of Light” the less likely I am to read it.

God.ol.ogy gets a 1, very low on the TKS!

My answer is simple: I honestly like the books with the shiniest cover or the happiest people. Or if I have read it before from the library and I think I will read it again, I will buy it. This is the case with Matilda and Walk Two Moons and The Phantom Tollbooth.

reybili – dyslexic Billy Ray

Tip for your book, Prodigal Jon, which relates to my earlier comment: Your book needs to have a decoder ring in the back and at certain points in the book you decode things that turn out to be Rob Bell and C.S. Lewis quotes. Points if you figure out what the quote is and who said it after decoding one or two words. A good Christian could do it!

I read the ending.

“Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.” —P. J. O’Rourke.

I sometimes choose books that will make me look really smart or super holy – whether or not I actually enjoy them.

Being a church secretary, if I see a book on any two of the four pastor’s bookshelves and the title is catchy, I put it on my Amazon wish list.

i have a tendency to pick up books with one-word titles. i skim the inside flap or back of the book to see if it is interesting.

i also like books i can read over and over and come away with something new each time, a la stargirl.

books i disagree with are always fun, too.

The title “Stuff Christians Like”, followed second by the author “Jon Acuff”.

Srsly. I look for that in stores.

*nods*

For me, it definitely has a lot to do with the initial reaction I get upon seeing the book, whether that reactions comes as a result of the title or the cover usually depends and it changes from book to book. Some book titles pique my curiosity in a more subtle way. For instance, “To Own a Dragon” by Donald Miller. when I saw the title, I was interested. I wanted to know what the meaning was behind it, so I picked up the book and read a couple of pages. I was hooked!

So it just depends from book to book, but the title is a killer for me. A good title will catch my interest quickly and easily. In the same spirit, an interesting cover design will also catch my eye and cause me to flip through a few pages

I would have to say cover art, which granted is probably not a winning answer. BUT it was my honest to goodness birthday yesterday (which you can confirm on facebook), so I thought I might have a shot!

The one thing that’ll guarantee that I at least pick up the book to flip through it is if the author is of the same ethnicity as I am (that is, Vietnamese). It’s one of those “wanting to help one of my own” reflexes that comes with being part of a minority, I suppose. Nothing personal against the white folks (or authors of any other ethnic background).

Unrelated to the previous point: A novel I picked up recently (The Cheese Monkeys) caught my eye because I recognized the author, Chip Kidd. Ironically, he made his fortune designing book jackets. Needless to say, that book has a really nice book jacket. It’s also a very entertaining novel.

Oh, and I laughed out loud when I read the Darth Vader quote in Tim Keller’s The Reason for God. I knew that book and I were meant to be together the moment I read it.

“you had me at “DOH!”

I’m such a sucker for a Simpson’s reference or anything non-Xn culture (notice my frequent use of “X” in place of Christ) that the local Xn bookstore manager gifts me any such books. (she really likes me? Not so much. She just keeping her bookshelves pure and undefiled. Got any copies of “Fight Club” you need to get rid of? I’m your gal.)

I am a sucker for cover design. If they have an amazing, eye catching cover, I’m sold. Add in a great description on the back that is presented artistically, even better!

On the flip side, I have no faith in endorsements anymore. The executive directors of the camp that I work at wrote a book last year. It’s a great book, definitely worth reading. However, when they were ready to publish it, they decided that they wanted some endorsements. So, they hit up some of their friends and got three people to do it for them. These guys had not read the book or had anything really to do with the book, they just knew what my bosses told them. Yet, they wrote endorsements like they had read it. So, now I am highly, highly skeptical of endorsements.

this is lame but I usually read the back cover.

I also check to see if the author has written anything else. sometimes the books that are the first book the person has ever written scare me!

oh and the cover has to be attractive – not messy or sloppy or ugly. It needs to say “open me and read me!”

I don't read books…SCL is good enough for me!

Ok…ok…I should never admit that…I try to get my kids to read books! I'm an elementary school teacher, so I look for fiction books with characters that are relatable. Frindle by Clements and Howl's Moving Castle (I don't remember who it's by) are my favorites! And I love a great picture book too!!!

When I read "grown-up" books, I look for who endorses the book…boring…I know, but I only have the summers to read!

~Tiffany