From this Guardian article …
To find your perfect novel, see page 69
Musicians have long held that the true worth of an album is to be found at track seven. Marshall McLuhan recommends trying the same trick at page 69.
Unless a book has been recommended by someone who shares similar reading tastes to mine I’ll usually read the first page and, if it doesn’t grab me, then I probably won’t bother buying it. If someone has lent or given me a book I’ll normally give it a bit longer. I used to never give up on reading a book when I was younger (well, except for Ulysses and Crime and Punishment) but I’ve since realised that life is too short to waste it on books I’m not enjoying.
Do you have any special tricks or rules when choosing a novel?
casa azahar 
An interesting question – and I don’t know the answer.
I’ll think on it.
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I judge a book by its cover 😉
But if something grabs me enough to pick off the shelf, then I’ll read the back cover blurb and the first page (just to be sure that the writing style doesn’t annoy me!)
People very rarely recommend books to me, but when they do, I persevere.
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“I judge a book by its cover”
Moi aussi… And, if I’m not sure, I flip to somewhere near the middle and read a few lines, and then flip again if the first flip didn’t catch me.
It was SOOOOO much easier when I worked in book stores. Unpacking boxes of stock was a good way of spotting something interesting. Of course, like working in a candy shop, it is far too easy to spend most of your paycheck on what you sell. Luckily, too, we usually got a fairly good discount. At Chapters, we got quarterly book bonuses and could spend $100 on books (I think it was quarterly… might have been twice a year). Mine always went to travel literature.
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I was just reading a blog entry by one of my favorite new authors — Carrie Vaughn, Filling the Well, wordpress (just to promote it a little!); she uses Page 99. Sounds good as any to me.
What I do, usually, is read the back (or inside the back cover, if it’s HC), the first paragraph, and a random page in the middle. If that doesn’t do it, and it’s someone whose work I’ve read, I’ll read it for as long as the store will let me loaf around their aisles or until I just can’t get into it.
I have heard of methods including facing north and the use of drifting chicken feathers… 😎
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I just read page 69 of three books on my shelves and that seems as good a way as any. based on that method I would reread all three books.
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Hmm. I’m the blurb entry reading, random flipping sort of decider myself. Plus just starting out at the beginning of books recommended to me by people with similar tastes. Page 69, huh? Sounds vaguely titillating.
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If it does not initially engage you, it is not for you. Whether that is 1 or 20 pages in any order is up to you.
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No logical method for choosing. A mixture of title, cover blurb, and a couple of page flips. Recommendations and whether I’ve read the author before also have a part to play.
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