Are you attracted to a book because it's written by an author you know and like or because you think the title is cool?

Originally Posted by FireOnix

Are you attracted to a book because it's written by an author you know and like or because you think the title is cool?

I look for content first -- is this a topic I am interested in? Then author if I liked their previous work. Title comes last -- authors don't always come up with the title of their books -- so you don't know if the person who came up with the title is the one who wrote what's inside...so don't judge a book by its title... ;)

I quite often judge a book by its title. If it's attention grabbing or whatnot. The author is less important.

Some of my friends base the books they read on the author and not necessarily on the title.

I normally judge a book based more on the summary and plot and such than either the author or the title. I look up a lot of my books online before deciding to read them to find out whether or not they sound interesting.

If I enjoy a book by a certain author, though, I usually do end up reading some of that author's other books. But once again, it would depend on what they were about and whether the subject was interesting to me.

Although I suppose if the cover or the title seemed really stupid, it might discourage me from reading something. xD

I usually go by both.
If I don't know the author, then I look at the front of the book, the back of it, and sometimes read a little bit of it before I get it.
Works pretty well for me. I think that pretty much all of the mysteries I have read so far were great! c:

Originally Posted by FireOnix

Are you attracted to a book because it's written by an author you know and like or because you think the title is cool?

A lot of the books I like have really horrible titles. For example, "The Name of the Wind." I'm sorry, but that's a really crappy title considering what the book is actually about. Yes, he does want to learn the name of the wind, but aside from that it's crap. If I didn't hear good things about it, I never would've picked up a book with that title.

Another example, "His Mortal Instruments: City of Bones." Wow, does this sound like some grave-robbing horror book or what? And it's really not. It's nowhere near that. It's about angels and nephilim and good versus evil. The only mention of City of Bones is a place they go to for a fraction of the book. It's really irrelevant to the rest of the story, and a bad title in my opinion.

Then there's titles like "House of Night" which is a decent enough title because it is what the book is about, the House of Night. Granted, the books themselves aren't very good, but the title itself is fitting, and it's the title that intrigued me enough to read this series.


Authors, on the other hand, I can't say I ever really consider too much, as there have been so many times where I like one book by an author, but hate all of their other works. Most authors go down hill once they become popular. Margaret Weiss & Tracy Hickman for example, horrible recent books, amazing older books.

I don't know, it's easy to judge a book by the title or the author, but whether or not your judgements are accurate are another matter entirely.

It depends, I think. If I love the author, typically the book is worth a try. If I dont know the other, I judge by the title and the little paragraph on the back. If Im still not sold on it, I'll read through a few pages.
Attention grabbing first pages are very important, in my opinion.
Oh, and pay lots of attention to book suggestions from other people.

Depends. If I think the title sounds cool, I'll read a few pages of it at the begining and middle. Just to see if it might catch my attention. But if its an author whose books I have read lots of, and really enjoyed their writing style, I'll usually just pick up those books.

i don't normally look at titles too hard. if a cover looks interesting i'll usually read the first couple pages to see if it grabs my interest and then look at the title.
if i like an author i tend to buy most of their books because it's almost a given that i'll enjoy them.

If it's an author I know and like, I'll buy his or her books simply because of that.

However, when looking for new books I do look at titles. If the title makes me go, "huh?" then those are the books I tend to pick up and read the back synopsis for. Of course, I also like looking at cover art and stuff. I get some recommendations online for books, but a lot of my collection is me just picking up random books until I find one that I think is interesting enough to buy. I've gotten some of my favourite books that way.

Author for me, i'll much rather read a book by an author i love and who i know is a good writer who writes at the level that i read at than a book that i might not like written by somebody new.

call me closed in, but i prefer what i know to what i don't :)

If I've read the author before and liked they're style, I'm more likely to try another one of their books than someone random, just because they've proven themselves and I like to see what more they can offer.

Originally Posted by SarcasticKoneko

It depends, I think. If I love the author, typically the book is worth a try. If I dont know the other, I judge by the title and the little paragraph on the back. If Im still not sold on it, I'll read through a few pages.
Attention grabbing first pages are very important, in my opinion.
Oh, and pay lots of attention to book suggestions from other people.

Using this method may not always work out so well. What about books that don't pick up until your a chapter or two into it?

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have you ever read a number of books by one author enjoyed them all only to find one that you really don't like and get turned off any future books by that same author based on one bad book?

no. take scott westerfeld for example. i love his series(es? multiple) of Uglies the (last one sucked) and the Peeps series was great. one of his stand alone books, though, was called So Yesterday. and i couldn't stop thinking the main character was a tad fruity and i just didn't like the book. it seemed a little too real for my tastes. he usually writes lovely fantasy books/futuristic.

He's still one of my favorites though, and sometimes authors like to branch out and that's ok. i just don't like everything of theirs then i guess XD

how many of you look for series versus single book stories? what are some of your favorites?

I have a loooong list of books that I intend to read. I do often add books to that list (usually because I've read something good about the books somewhere) but I don't cross books off the list as often :P

I do a little of both. If it's by an author I like I might pick it up and read a few pages. If it's got an interesting title, I'll do the same thing. If it's both, it's almost a sure thing it'll get checked out, especially if I don't have much time to read the first few pages to see if I'll like it.

i like series more than i enjoy the single book. on the other hand though, i adore this one series... i'm not sure if it can be called one, all the books are never related. They are all a part of the same program or something, written by all different authors. Its called the Royal Diaries, and its a *series* of biographical fictional diaries 'written' by the princess the real writer has chosen. They're very good, i love them.

tl;dr

that series is a mixture of series and single book. the books are all stand alone, but they all have the emblem on them that says 'royal diaries series'

Originally Posted by chronic_heartbreak14

i like series more than i enjoy the single book. on the other hand though, i adore this one series... i'm not sure if it can be called one, all the books are never related. They are all a part of the same program or something, written by all different authors. Its called the Royal Diaries, and its a *series* of biographical fictional diaries 'written' by the princess the real writer has chosen. They're very good, i love them.

tl;dr

that series is a mixture of series and single book. the books are all stand alone, but they all have the emblem on them that says 'royal diaries series'

thats cool I'll have to look into those

oh yeah, they're really neat. so far there are 23, but i've only read 14. I'm re-reading Kazunomiya, but my favorite is a tie between Catherine the Great (future empress of russia) and Lady Ch'iao Kuo (ancient southern chinese princess) and Sondok of the moon and stars (future first queen of Korea, still united)

sounds very interesting

Originally Posted by FireOnix

Using this method may not always work out so well. What about books that don't pick up until your a chapter or two into it?

Personally, I think that's bad writing. The first several chapters are incredibly important; why would I keep reading a book if, by the time I'm two chapters into it, I'm still bored to tears? You have to hook the reader in the first chapters...You have to get them interested. You learn that much in basic, junior high level English. If you're going to write a book, I think you should at least know the basics. -.-


I base the books I read on all of the above. XD
The author is least important; I've learned by now that I often love one thing written by an author, and hate something else written by the same person. Sometimes, I'll find a really good author, and I'll give their other books a shot (STEPHEN KING), but other authors don't interest me enough.
Titles are important. I instantly shy away from any book with a lame title. If the author wrote a horrible title, what's that saying about their story? And getting someone else to name it for you...That's just lazy and lacking imagination. All it tells me is that they weren't creative enough to make a good title on their own.
The description is also important..If the basic story plot isn't something I'd like, then I obviously wouldn't enjoy the book.
I always read a few pages in the middle, as well. This is to see if i like their writing style, how their descriptions are, etc. etc..

After going through this whole process, I'll decide if the book is worth my time. It works about 98% of the time, which is good enough for me. XD

If it's a good author, than yes, but I go for the summary on the back usually

I usually hunt down books by authors that I've always enjoyed like Judy Blume, J.D Salinger, etc. After that it's those classic books like Life of Pi, The Left Hand of Darkness, etc.

Now if I'm not looking for a sure thing good book I would go by title and well, horrible me, book cover. Those two are the things that lure me in after that I read the summary and first page to make my final decision.