Do you judge a book by its cover?

With thousands of books being released into the bookshops every week it is hard for the reader to make a decision about what to read. Of course we read the reviews in newspapers and magazines and accept recommendations from friends and Amazon, but when you have run out of inspiration it is the only thing you can do when faced with the wonderful selection on offer in your local bookshop. My favourite shop in the whole world is Waterstones. I get the same giddy rush of excitement that most girls seem to get from shoe shops and jewellers, and I will spend ages wandering around the shelves stocking up on my 3 for 2 deals and usually end up with at least 6 books.

When looking at an unfamiliar author and a new title it seems to me that I probably give each book roughly 10 seconds of my time. I know without any shadow of doubt that I judge books by their cover. The marketing and art departments of the publishers play a huge role in making a book attractive and also in targeting the right readers for the genre. I am probably one of their target customers, in that I don’t spend too much time deciding what to buy, but I am drawn towards their books by their design and colour schemes.

Bookshops like Waterstones tend to divide up the titles into genre and I imagine most people can spot, from far across the room, the section with the books they like just from the colours of the spines. Spy novels, crime, fantasy and science fiction tend to have dark covers and strong images on the cover of guns, knives, barbed wire, vampires and aliens as appropriate. I tend to avoid this kind of fiction and head straight to the candy coloured chick-lit titles and the primary or subtle arty colours of the literary fiction. Chick-lit titles are easily recognised by their predilection for pretty colours, and to the untrained eye they probably all look the same. However, there are subtle clues to the type of book it is as indicated by the illustrations. The more hearts and flowers, the sappier the plot, but if there is a picture of shoes the plot gets a little racier.

As a whole I am less inclined to pick up the most obvious chick-litty kind of book. I am not fond of the overly sugary types of novel s on offer, but I am still drawn to at least look at some of the more feminine artwork on some books. If I have lots of time on my hands I will spend much more time choosing books and will read the blurbs and perhaps the first chapter before making a purchase. But quite often I don’t have that much time to spare so I hit the shop in a frenzy of purchasing adrenaline and pick up the first few titles that have instant appeal.

I also have a tendency to buy books by authors that I have liked in the past and will look out for my favourites. But quite often I hit the shops, or the library, completely clueless about what to read next and I feel like a drug addict seeking my next indiscriminate fix. For example, I had run out of reading material earlier this week and made a beeline for my local library in Maynooth. I did not have long to browse before getting back to my car before I would be in danger of getting clamped so I rushed in to the library like a one-woman SAS hit squad and picked out five titles almost at random. Maynooth library has a brilliant section devoted to new titles so I usually head straight for that rack. I chose two titles by authors I had already read, but another three just by the prettiness of the book cover. How shallow is that? But I am sure that I won’t be disappointed by my choices.

But wouldn’t it be nice to have some kind of book review system for libraries? I would love to be able to look up a review of books, organised by genre, and not just writing about the brand new titles. I would recommend buying a copy of 1000 books to read before you die. I forget the name of the editor but it is easy to find on Amazon. I must remember to take it with me next time I go to the library or bookshop.