For Book Lovers

[+ Lucky]

This thread is intended to have limited appeal. I would like to know how book lovers here pick the book that they are going to be reading next, or even after that.

 

Recently I have been very lucky in picking books which interest me, and it seems to happen quite by accident. I was at Borders bookstore buying another book when I saw the cover for Grief, by gay author Andrew Holleran. The cover was nicely done, I thought, but $12 for a slight book?

 

So I was driving by the library, and went in there to see if they had it. They did, I got it, read and liked it. But at the same time, with H for Holleran being so close to H for Hollinghurst, another book called out to me. It was The Spell, by Alan Hollinghurst, whose other books, including The Line of Beauty, I had liked. So I got The Spell as well, and also enjoyed reading it. Hollinghurst does like to comment on beauty, and his character Danny, so beautiful that we all throw ourselves at him to ill results, made the book like a visit here.

 

Finally, I had received a 40% off coupon for Borders, and since you don't pick a sale book for that, (you lose the difference) I searched and searched for my new book. Nothing was calling to me until I saw Everyone Dies Alone, by Hans Fallada. This book, it turns out, was written by a German author who lived through Nazi Berlin. Having just been released from a mental asylum in 1946, he takes on the story of two small-time protesters of life in Nazi Berlin. The 500 page book was written in 24 days, and the author died of a morphine overdose before its publication in 1947. Now, finally translated to English, it is being released here, and I was simply amazed at the beauty of the writing and the clever telling of the dark story. I could never write a book like this, not even close to 24 days. Why did that book call out to me? Does that happen to you?

[Lankypeters]

This thread is intended to have limited appeal. I would like to know how book lovers here pick the book that they are going to be reading next, or even after that.

 

 

 

Good question, but, oh, so hard to answer.

 

You do mention covers. Do aspects of the design appeal to you?

 

I choose by genre, mood, season (love to read thrillers that take place during winter during the same season), author (follow many, especially those who write thrillers and mysteries), reviews, recommendations.

 

Just about any book of Hollywood in the '40s and '50s and theater during the same period, as well as the '60s, automatically does on my list.

[+ purplekow]

I walk into a book store and wait for a book to call to me and then buy it. I don't actually hear the book, but there is something about the look, the feel even the smell of the book that draws me in. I am sure product placement plays a role in tall that too. I also tend to look on the high school summer reading table and pick an old favorite to re-read

[+ Charlie]

Most of the books I read nowadays, I get from the library, but I follow the same patterns in a bookstore. I go first to the shelves with the new non-fiction books, and see if there is anything on a subject that interests me, usually history or biography. I read the NYTimes weekly book reviews (courtesy of Lucky, who gives them to me when he has finished with them--if his dogs haven't peed on them), so I look for books whose reviews have intrigued me. I also look for authors whose previous work I have enjoyed. If I don't find anything that calls to me, I go to the shelves of older books on topics of interest to me. If I am in the mood for fiction, I look for authors or titles that I have heard of, often 19th and 20th century classics. I am rarely called by the book covers, though I will check the number of pages and size of the print, and will sometimes reject a book I thought I wanted to read, just because it is too long/heavy or the print is too small.

[edjames]

I have so many favorite authors, I hardly have the time to explore new books by new authors, although every once in a while one or two sneak through. Certainly cover art has a lot to do with picking up a new book, but I always read the inside flap for a synopsis of the story. Frequently there are reviews by other popular authors and I check to see if any of the authors I like to read have anything to say about the author and the book.

 

I tend to focus on mysteries, thrillers, and crime. My favorite author is a guy named Wilbur Smith who is from South Africa and has written many books.

 

I have a Barnes and Noble membership which provides deep discounts and regularly emails weekly discount coupons.

 

Fortunately, living in midtown Manhattan has some advantages, like the booksellers who set up their tables on the sidewalk and sell directly to customers, usually at 50% off and no tax! Cash only, though. Still, you can pick up a bestseller or a recently released hardcover for about $14.

 

In the past, I've also used online retailers like Amazon.com or EBay to get harder-to-find or UK books.

 

Happy reading!

 

ED

[+ Lucky]

Ed- how is it that you can pick up those bestsellers on the street at 50% off? Well, first it is shoplifted. Then the thief sells it for 75% off list, and the final seller sells it for 50% off. A least that's how it was a few years ago when an entire bookstore got closed because it was selling shoplifted items.

 

Otherwise, who knows. Maybe the guy bought it, read it, and now wants to sell it.

 

My mom wanted to read Barbara Walters book Audition, but the library didn't have it in large print. So I found one, bought it, mailed it to her for her 91st birthday. Was she happy? No. The book was too long, too heavy, and how was she going to read it before her birthday?

[Guest zipperzone]

I read a great deal and have an extensive library. I like to keep books I have read - seldom if ever throw one out or pass it on (other than on loan). For that reason, I have an aversion to paperbacks as they don't hold up well and look unattractive on the shelves.

 

However, in Canada the price these days of a book (and I'm not talking about art books) hovers around the $40 mark, with some higher. That makes me hesitate to buy many books that I otherwise would like to read. The fear of paying 40 bucks for a book that just may disappoint doesn't have much appeal.

 

One last comment - does anyone else hate the words "coffee table book" as much as I do?

[+ purplekow]

I read a great deal and have an extensive library. I like to keep books I have read - seldom if ever throw one out or pass it on (other than on loan). For that reason, I have an aversion to paperbacks as they don't hold up well and look unattractive on the shelves.

 

However, in Canada the price these days of a book (and I'm not talking about art books) hovers around the $40 mark, with some higher. That makes me hesitate to buy many books that I otherwise would like to read. The fear of paying 40 bucks for a book that just may disappoint doesn't have much appeal.

 

One last comment - does anyone else hate the words "coffee table book" as much as I do?

 

Reminds me of the Seinfeld episode in which Kramer makes a book with pictures of coffee tables that actually can be converted into a coffee table.

[Luv2play]

I'm like Zip, I have an extensive library of somewhere close to 5000 books but spread over three residences. I will never get through them all but ad some 500 per year. I have books EVERYWHERE. Usually 50 around each bed so I can pick up something every night I am alone. I usually have 2 or 3 on the go all the time.

 

I don't mind dropping a book mid way through and then picking it up several weeks later when I am back at that house. Sometimes it is two or three months later but if I like the book I will finish it. A few have taken me years to read, such as the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbons. There are just so many emperors and so much fratricide! Still I will finish it one day.

 

My late uncle left me a portion of his library consisting of books by and about Winston Churchill, about 75 in all. I have read about 12 or so, have delved into his complete speeches (12 volumes, but will never finish that).

 

I also have some of my grandfather's books and have recently finished his 16 volume set of the history of New France by the 19th century historian from Boston, Francis Parkman. I also have an interesting set of books from my parents who let me take whatever I wanted from the library when they sold their house to move into an apartment in 1963. I was clever and took all the first editions that I could find and other treasures, some of which I have sold to dealers for a lot of money in recent years when I realized that you can't take them with you.

 

I usually only get new books at Christmas and for my birthday, when I request titles from relatives. I also give books to my brother and usually surreptiously read them first, very carefully so he doesn't know. Well, what can you do, I am a bibliophile!

[+ Lucky]

Some very interesting ways to approach books. Zipperzone raises another issue, which I call books as trophies. I used to keep my books too, but they collect dust, and I wasn't sure if I was just keeping them as trophies so others could see what I had read. Now I give all of my books away, but I do share zipper's love for hardbacks.

[TruthBTold]

I always try to start with the books nominated for the Booker Prize.

[+ Lucky]

Bookers

 

Hollinghurst's Line of Beauty is the only Booker winner I have read. I tried Life of Pi but couldn't finish it.

[Epigonos]

I seldom read fiction and if I do it is usually a re-read of a Jane Austin novel. I subscribe to the New York Times Sunday Book Review Section. My taste is rather eclectic but generally runs to biography, history and some philosophy. I usually have two books going at a time. I like some others here buy only hardback books.

 

Additionally I collect first editions of memoirs written by Brits living in India during the Mutiny of 1857-58. My major source for these books has been Maggs Bros. Ltd. on Berkeley Square in London.

[+ purplekow]

Some very interesting ways to approach books. Zipperzone raises another issue, which I call books as trophies. I used to keep my books too, but they collect dust, and I wasn't sure if I was just keeping them as trophies so others could see what I had read. Now I give all of my books away, but I do share zipper's love for hardbacks.

 

I recently gave almost all my books to the local hospital. The paperbacks went on the book cart that they take around and the hard backs they placed in a separate visitor and patient reading room. As I was walking the corridors, I happened upon a patient reading the copy of the Brothers Karamazov I had donated. I recognized it by the peculiar dogear. I felt as though I had done something to make that patient's dreary day just a bit drearier.

Good times.

[+ purplekow]

Hollinghurst's Line of Beauty is the only Booker winner I have read. I tried Life of Pi but couldn't finish it.

 

Pi has 100 chapters, deliberately so I believe. You need to get to chapter 35 about 70 pages in before it becomes a page turner, well at least for me it did. And Chapter 100, 2 pages that put a completely different spin on the 99 chapters that went before.

[Racketjock]

Turned on by books

 

My choice in a book is usually dictated by my moods. I confess to great cover art catching my eye and something beautiful or a hot guy doesn't go unnoticed. I like all genres and generally switch around from one to the next. As I don't watch TV, I take refuge in a book that offers me an escape be it to fantasy, a life lived, a love lost, or a lesson learned. I enjoy the adventure and the freedom it affords my imagination. Although I try to not "judge a book by its cover," I prefer to see what piques my interest rather than some review by a critic.

[Guest zipperzone]

Some very interesting ways to approach books. Zipperzone raises another issue, which I call books as trophies. I used to keep my books too, but they collect dust, and I wasn't sure if I was just keeping them as trophies so others could see what I had read. Now I give all of my books away, but I do share zipper's love for hardbacks.

 

Lucky - I don't think they are trophies at all. I look at them as old friends, the same way I look at photographs I took years ago. They improve what might otherwise be a failing memory and bring about a feel of great nostalgia.

 

Sometimes a person comes into my home who has never been there before, looks at all the rooms lined with ceiling to floor, wall to wall bookcases and ask, "Have you really read all those books?" I feel like replying, "No dear, I just collect them because they are good insulation and help to deaden the sounds". Somehow such types seldom get a 2nd invitation.

[+ Lucky]

Zipperzone- I know what you mean, and I like the way you put it. Books as old friends- I like that.

[+ sf westcoaster]

My book selection stems from a variety of sources. I belong to a book club so that is an easy one - frequently requires me to read something that I would never select on my own and just as frequently I am surprised at how much I like the book. Also read the New York Times book review every Sunday and use that as a guide. For airplane travel I usually fall back on mysteries and for that I use the Edgar Awards list. Another selection source is recommnedations from friends or just simply swapping books with friends.

Not a very scientific selection process but it works for me.

[edjames]

Lucky, I am afraid you are incorrect when you state the books for sale on the street have been shoplifted, stolen or are used copies.

 

These men and women are LICENSED BOOK SELLERS. They do business from their homes, drive into Manhattan and sell books at various locations across the city. The reason they are able to sell books at 50% off is simple...NO OVERHEAD! They do not pay commerical rent, have no employees or other retail costs and as licensed book sellers they are able to purchase books direct from publishing houses at wholesale prices. You don't think Barnes and Noble or Borders actually pays $24.95 for a new nardcover book, do you? The actual wholesale prices is more like $4-5!

 

It is unfair for you to catgorize these individuals as thieves without knowing the facts. Your assumption is unfair and totally wrong! I know because I have been buying books from these folks for many years and have spent time talking to them about their businesses. I can assure you that no book has been stolen or has fallen off the truck!

 

ED

[+ Charlie]

I keep two kinds of books: those that have some special sentimental value for me, such as books written by my friends, and books that I think I might want to read again. I have no problem with getting rid of any others, but my partner never wants to get rid of a book, which drives me crazy, since we have run out of places to shelve them (when we moved across country, I forced him to get rid of more than a thousand, and he was disconsolate).

[+ Lucky]

No Sticky Fingers Here!

 

Ed, I qualified my remark to state that it applied to at least the one bookstore which was forced to close several years ago for selling shoplifted books at half-off. At that time, the newspapers were full of stories about the street vendors, and for awhile, there were fewer vendors. I am happy to know that all is up and up now- that's the New York way, after all!

 

Charlie- You forced him to get rid of several old friends, if you follow the zipperzone theory that books are like old friends.

[Lookin]

I'm reading a book on obsessive-compulsive disorder and I can't put it down.

[+ Charlie]

I still haven't been able to start my book on aversion therapy.

[Guest bighugbearphx]

I'm been an avid reader of gay-themed books for most of my life. I used to browse the local GLBT bookstore, now extinct in most cities. Amazon is the online king, of course, and generally has a good selection, although their "logic" in recommending booiks (based on others you have purchased or viewed) is often ludicrous. So, every month or two, I usually do a search for any new releases under the "Gay and Lesbian" subcategory, and go from there.

 

I'm also one of Amazon's top reviewers of gay books, and those reviews also appear in a reading group on Yahoo and in Echo, Phoenix's biweekly newsmagazine (in print or online). For Echo, I have to review occasional lesbian fiction and erotica too, which hasn't been quite as bad as I was expecting. I get lots of books directly from publishers or authors, but I still end up buying about half of the titles I read.

 

I've gotten numerous e-mails from people who have seen my reviews, and say they use them as a recommendation for books they would also like. Makes sense ... check out a book on Amazon you liked, read the user reviews below to see someone who is closest to your feelings about it, then click on their username. It will take you to a listing of all of their reviews, in reverse chronological order. Might be an excellent shortcut to finding other titles you like!

 

Some recommendations:

 

Most here, but especially those who live(d) in the DC area will like:

ALL THAT I COULD BARE: MY LIFE IN THE GAY STRIP CLUBS OF WASHINGTON DC by Craig Seymour, recently released in paperback.

 

Also recently especially liked:

COLD SERIAL MURDER by Mark Abramson (solving a murder in the Castro)

STRAIGHT LIES by Rob Byrnes (gay con men vs a celebrity with a secret)

A HUMMINGBIRD DANCE: A DETECTIVE LANE MYSTERY by Gary Ryan

THE BOOMERANG KID by Jay Quinn (Character driven novel about troubled gay young man)

ISLAND SONG by Alan Chin (billed as a "paranormal erotic thriller")

 

Not out yet, but I read them and can tell you they should be on your "must read" list:

WHAT WE REMEMBER by Michael Thomas Ford (out May 26th)

OBJECT OF DESIRE by William J. Mann (out June 30th)