Currently Reading – Five Easy Tips for Finding Good Books – Library Trip

Today I visited my local library and searched for new reads. As an author, I’m always studying the works of others, seeing what I like and don’t. Finding something in my genre is always hard because I like unique, surprising books. But how am I supposed to judge for myself what is in my genre or not? Or whether I will like it? These are my most frequently asked questions at the library.

I have five different ways of finding a good book. I’m hoping that by sharing these tips with you, you will be able to find more books in your style and have a never-ending To-Be-Read stack.

#1, the title. With all books, if the title is something mysterious, or cool, you will want to pick it up. Be forewarned, though. The title is the most thought-on part of the book. The author could spend a year brainstorming the title, and a month on the book. This is why you can’t judge it only by the name.

#2, the cover. Yes, I know people say not to judge books by their covers, but it really does work. If you look at the front of a novel and it has a cartoony cover, you would probably guess that the cover was not planned all that long. Or, visa versa, if it is too detailed, the cover might have been the author’s only concern. Trust me, I’ve read horrible books inside of beautiful covers.

#3, the reviews on the back, if there are any. I like to see if any of the authors I like have commented on other books. If they have said positive things about a book I find on the shelf, I know the book must be ok.

#4, the excerpt or intro, usually on the back of the book if it’s a paper cover, or inside the left sleeve if it’s a hardcover. Hopefully that will give you enough information to tell you whether or not you like the story or the way it’s written. If the intro is a part of the book, like a small scene, and it doesn’t tell you anything about the book itself, like what the point is, you might have to just start reading the novel blindly.

#5, the style. I’m pretty picky about what I read. Usually, there are three different ways of writing a perspective in books. 1st person is when someone is telling you the story from their perspective. As an example, ‘I waved at her from across the street.’ 2nd person is where the narrator is talking to somebody, namely, you. 2nd person is not used much because of its complexity. As a general rule, the author is not allowed to say, I, ‘your’ name, or anything to do with the narrator him/herself. An example of 2nd person is, ‘you wave at her from across the street.’ Lastly, 3rd person is where you address all characters by their names or him, her, he, or she. This one is one of the most popular of the three, as it is easy to write and everyone is familiar with it.

For me, if the book is written in 2nd person, even if it has a good title and excerpt, I cannot even bring myself to read it. It is just one thing I don’t enjoy doing. Even if the book has a good plot, if it is written in 2nd person, I just can’t. 1st and 3rd are fine. I’m completely okay with them. I don’t know why I dislike 2nd. So, choose a style you like. It doesn’t matter if you change, just choose one or two and make sure your book goes within that category.

Other types of writing styles to pay attention to include something like Pride and Prejudice, which is written in an old style, or something like Michael Vey, which is pretty modern. The change in tone and syntax is very notable, and while some people love older, classical novels, present-day reads can also thrill others. For me, I don’t love reading older books. They are hard to understand, and sometimes use words we have never even heard of before! I guess that’s just me, though. We all have our preferences and each of us like different things.

After going through this list, I hope you’ve found a huge stack of wonderful books to take home and enjoy for hours on end! These are some of the best ways to judge books that I have found so far. But, if you need more, try Goodreads and Amazon for star ratings and readers’ comments. Thanks so much for reading these suggestions, I hope these tips helped!

Write a comment below if you have any other ways of judging books, and join my email list to hear more updates about my book!!!

Stay magical,