Why read [i]this[/i] one?

[Redlass]

When we write book reviews, we're ideally trying to convince someone that they should or shouldn't read a book. But that requires knowing what would make our readers read a book.

So, let me ask this: What makes you want to read a book?

For me, it usually has to touch on a subject that interests me (history, theater, family, mysteries, religion, to name a few) and it has to deal with it in a way that is different and interesting. I like things which are quirky and would be more inclined to read something that had a quirky element.

I also like meeting fascinating people who face unusual problems and handle them with creativity and flair. If I can meet someone like this in a novel, I'm a happy camper.

[Grouch]

My answer to this would be long, convoluted and quite possibly sprinkled with some Freudian psychobabble...and in the end, none of it would make sense or even really matter. My taste in reading material is, at the same time, fairly well-defined and yet at the same time extremely complex. It's like asking me what the perfect wife would be before I married her. For me, every book is a potential marriage.

Having said all that, here are some of the things that will draw me toward a book:
*a quirky writing style
*set in Montana or Wyoming
*any blurb that compares the author's writing to that of Flannery O'Connor's
*the words "John Irving" on the book jacket

[pluckyduck]

Every book that I love has the exact same plot. Think Pat Conroy or Anne Tyler.

All I need to read is "This is a book about a quirky and dysfunctional family. The plot consists of quirky and dysfunctional family exploring their quirks and dysfunctions. Everybody learns a little bit more about each other, but nobody changes. The end."

Now that's my cup of tea!

Andrea

[Dani257]

Being about a subject that interests me is the main reasonI read a book. A catchy title (the wierder the better) also can draw me in. One time, I had to read a book just because the picture on the cover intrigued me. It was the first time I bought a book without flipping through it to see if I'd like it.

[KristenNC]

Ditto David in that every book has the potential to absolutely move me. And though most of my book reading is all within the same genre, I have been known to pick a literary offering now and again.

I tend to gravitate towards

• Women authors
  
• Serial killers
  
• Good cops/PIs/forensic scientists, etc.
  
• Praise for accuracy (in the psychology, criminology and the medical aspects.)
  
• Anything having to do with forensic psychology and the psychology behind crime
  
• Anything with a knife featured prominantly on the cover art.

Since I do also read some feminist literature, I like reading books that are about women (and not just dead women, really.) I also like classic children's books.

[hadassahchana[$]]

I could take the easy way out and tell you to ask eplovejoy or stephen_murray, as I'll read anything those two recommend- I've found that we have very simliar tastes.

Ok, if I have to give specifics, then first of all, the writing has to be amazing- use of language fascinates me and will keep me reading a book that perhaps isn't as good as I'd hoped.

Brilliant descriptions, ways of looking at things that I wouldn't come up with, are also things that attract me to certain authors- think Romesh Gunesekera.

Or, depending on my mood, a really funny travel writer, such as Bill Bryson will keep me howling for hours (even if my poor dh would prefer to sleep!).

Cindy

[soxfan[$]]

It usually starts with the subject for me, too. Right now baseball, history, and sci-fi/fantasy top the list, but that changes depending on my mood.

What I look for in writing depends on my mood, too. Sometimes it's vivid prose, sometimes a new spin on a familiar story (like Marion Zimmer Bradley's take on the King Arthur legend), and sometimes a behind-the-scenes look at a part of society (like the Mob) I'd otherwise never see.

Ailsa

[kuuleimomi]

Certain topic, certain genre, certain style. For example, I most likely start reading a diary by some 25 year old female gay rights supporter Christian.

I also tend to read a lot of classics, but that comes with being from Russia and attending Russian school I guess. People want to be seen as intelligent and well educated individuals so I believe they just HAVE TO throw quotes from Dickens and Twain here and there. So words like 'must be read right now and no minute further' work for them.

I basically will start reading any non-fiction or fiction I can relate too, most of the people do the same.

[frazzledspice]

I am the queen of the self-help books! I have read so many that I should have reached perfection long ago.

I read lots of different kinds of books, but I buy the self-help books.

I pick the books I read by looking at book reviews and best seller lists, or sometimes by browsing through used bookstores.

My favorite time-wasters are mysteries, particularly legal mysteries, or detective stories, particularly female detective stories.