Do you find yourself forming trends in your reading? Is this a conscience act, influenced by either your own interests or current publishing fads?
I like variety in my reading, so I don’t tend to follow trends, although recently I’ve noticed I’m reading quite a lot of crime fiction. This hasn’t been a conscious decision – it’s just happened. I read whatever takes my fancy at the time.
Do you feel disappointed when the covers don’t match the story? Have you ever been completely misled by a book cover?
As I wrote in last week’s Monday Musings the book cover doesn’t have much effect on me when I’m deciding whether to buy a book. It has even less effect once I’ve started to read it because I just don’t see the cover. In fact sometimes I’ve hardly looked at the cover and couldn’t say what was on it. I can’t think of an example where I’ve been misled by the cover.
Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about book covers€¦
We all know the old adage about not judging a book by it’s cover, but just how much sway does a book cover have when it comes to your choice of book €“ whether buying or borrowing? Are there any books you’ve bought based on the cover alone?
The book cover doesn’t have much effect on me when I’m deciding whether to buy a book. If I know the author or am looking for a specific title I take no notice of the cover. If I’m browsing then it’s the title that attracts me more often than than the cover and I’ll look at books even if the covers aren’t to my taste. If it has an attractive cover that’s a plus. Above all it’s the content I go by not the cover, so if the blurb reads well, plus the opening pages then I’ll pick that book.
If I’m at the library I have a slightly different approach and it’s there that I’ll sometimes just go for an attractive cover as a sort of “mystery” buy, without checking the content. Sometimes this works and other times it’s a complete failure.
Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about library company€¦
Who, if anyone usually accompanies you to the library? Is it somewhere you go alone? Or is it a regular outing with family or friends? Which do you prefer?
My library visits are either with family or alone. As a child I went with my mother and when I was old enough I started to go by myself. My first full-time job was as a librarian so then I used to bring books home with me. Later I took my son with me and now my husband sometimes come with me.
I have no preference – if I’m with others we split up in the library to browse and meet up when we’ve chosen our books anyway so it really doesn’t make any difference.
Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about mid-year reading€¦
Now that we’ve come to the middle of the year, what do you think of your 2009 reading so far? Read anything interesting that you’d like to share? Any outstanding favourites?
I’ve read some very good books this year so far. The list is in the tab labelled Books Read at the top of my blog. There have been just a few that were disappointing but a lot that I thought were excellent including these (in no particular order). Click on the titles to go to my reviews:
Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about library borrowing€¦
Do you restrict yourself on how many books you take out from the library at a time? Do you borrow books if you already have some out? Do you always reborrow books you don’t get to?
I don’t restrict my borrowing – the library does that for me! We’re allowed to borrow up to 15 items, but as my husband doesn’t use up his allocation I can have more using his ticket. But right now I’ve only got 14 books out. I’ve been trying to catch up reading from my own unread books, but the library is so convenient (ten minutes away by car) that I usually visit once a fortnight or so. I don’t wait until I’ve read all the books I have on loan but each time I go I take some books back and usually bring home more than I returned.
What is so good about borrowing books is that I can look at them in more detail that in a bookshop. Sometimes if I really like a book I’ll then buy a copy. If I haven’t read a book before it’s due back, sometimes that’s because I’ve decided not to read it and then I return it. Other times it’s because I haven’t got round to it, so I renew it. I can renew books on-line up to four times, provided no one else has reserved it, after that you have to take the book and have it re-issued. If someone has reserved it you can reserve it again without charge – pretty good really.
BooksPlease 