Today’s Book Blogger Hop question is: What draws you in more: the book’s title, the book’s cover, or the summary on the back cover?
This is an interesting and slightly shifting question – when I used to find most of my books by browsing the library, I would have seen the title first. Most books are on the shelves so only their spines show, meaning it’s only the title that led me to pick it up and look at the cover and summary.
When I was getting most of my book reading ideas from reading book blogs, I feel like it was the summary, or what the bloggers said about the book, that drew me in. I don’t recall focusing on titles or covers as much when I was reading blog posts.
Most recently I’ve been reading lots of books off my To Be Read list, which mostly got there because I heard about a particular book…somehow. A lot were suggestions that weren’t ultimately chosen at my book club, some (non-fiction, mostly) were referenced by other books, some are recommended by friends or someone I know online. So in all those cases, it’s mostly something about the plot (which would be in the summary) that led me into reading them.
Ultimately it is mostly the summary that gets me to actually read a book – even when I was browsing, I’d look at a title, then a cover, then the summary. Though frequently I’d only read half a summary before making a decision – I really wanted it to hook me immediately!
What draws you to read a book? The title, the cover, the summary, or even something else?
When I go into a book shop, it’s a combination of title and cover. Then I turn it over to read the back, and put ot back as soon as possible. Why are the back covers of trad published books so bad? – or rather, just the same, over and over again.
Wonderful answer.
Great comments about the title being the first thing when you were looking at library books. Never thought of that. 🙂
Thanks for your thoughtful answer.
Since I read most of my books on Kindle, I would say that it’s the summary that is the deciding factor for me. My Kindle is a paperwhite, so the books that I buy on it, and those that are recommended based on my prior reading, are all presented in black and white. So I don’t even see the cover as the author and publisher intended it if I was buying it in a book store. I always look at the summary and the reviews from other readers in making a decision on whether to invest the time – and often the money – in reading a book. There are exceptions such as new releases by favorite authors or (mostly political) books that create a lot of buzz when released, that I’ll buy without concern for the summary or reviews. But for the vast majority, those are what decides it for me.