How To Choose A Book
1. By its reputation. The book is considered a classic or, if new, has received glowing reviews.
In 2013 we are going to climb Mt. Proust. We are currently in training. Volunteers accepted. You will be asked to sign a waiver clearing us of any responsibility should you run amok.
2. By its author. You’ve read and admired the author’s other works. Maybe you’re a completist.
We bought Jean-Christophe Valtat’s steampunk adventure Aurorarama because we loved his novella, 03. And because we’re a sucker for anything set in Venice.
There’s a story by Irwin Shaw in which a character chooses books on the basis of the author’s photograph on the jacket. Sounds silly, but it makes sense—we tend to be kinder towards people whose faces appeal to us.
3. By its cover. You like the way it looks. You are not being superficial. As books become niche products cover art, layout, fonts, the quality of the paper will matter more and more. Design and packaging may keep the book from extinction in the face of cheaper, more convenient, accessible digital versions.
4. By the movie. You’ve seen the film adaptation and wish to compare it with the book, or you want to read the book before the film comes out. Mark Millar pointed out that it’s in the author’s best interest to make sure the movie does justice to his work because face it, more people will see the movie than ever read the book. As far as they’re concerned, the movie IS the book.
5. By a recommendation from a friend. Can be complicated: If you hate the book, friend may take it as a slur on her personal taste. People are sensitive.
6. By the first line. “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Now you have to read it.
7. By the last line. “For all to be accomplished, for me to feel less lonely, all that remained to hope was that on the day of my execution there should be a huge crowd of spectators and that they should greet me with howls of execration.” Go back and read it.
8. The Ford Madox Ford rule: Read page 99. But page 99 of which edition? We downloaded a simple text file of Some Do Not…, the first volume of Parade’s End, from Project Gutenberg. It has no pagination.
Top of page 99 of The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño:
“At the hotel where we have Lupe. Your father was there.”
“What was he doing there?” The voice was uninflected; it was like talking to a brick wall, I thought.
Hmmm. True, it’s in translation.
9. The Marshall McLuhan rule: Read page 69.
From The Savage Detectives:
He held his two hands at chest height. They were trembling considerably.
“On a project?” I said affably, looking at the papers spread out on the table.
Eh. We’ll read it for reason #1.
10. The Jane Chord. Combine the first word and the last word. Pride and Prejudice: It/them.
At Last by Edward St. Aubyn: Surprised/for.
Atonement by Ian McEwan: The/sleep.
The Rachel Papers by Martin Amis: Seven/pen.
Naaah.
11. By browsing through it.
12. By suggestion. You saw a character in a movie or TV show reading that book. Apparently lots of people pick up books they spotted on Mad Men. Hey, it works for Don Draper. (Note: Because he’s Don Draper.)
13. It’s by a brilliant author, it was suppressed by Stalin, and it’s published for the first time in English by the New York Review of Books. Works for us.
Read Robert Crum on the best way to test a novel before you read it.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
November 29th, 2012 at 10:02
would like to join the proust project please.
November 29th, 2012 at 11:49
This is my problem: I like almost all the books I’ve read for the past 10 years, so I question my taste in books sometimes. I think I should’ve read more books that I should disagree with. Granted, I am not a voracious reader as I want to be (I read about a book or 2 a month) and I stay away from best sellers (I steered away from Twilight and its S&M version) and stick to the classics/sci-fi/fantasy/authors I like/things you and my favorite writers recommend.
The only things I read that I remember I really didn’t like were 1) a Malcolm Gladwell book, because he sounds like an infomercial and 2) a Paulo Coelho book, because that’s just South American literature for wussies. I had some readings back in college that I really didn’t like and bored me, but that was homework. I was deeply disappointed by A Dance With Dragons (if Tyrion says one more thing about where whores go, I will slap George in the face) but I still like it nonetheless.
It’s great that I’ve found and invested on books I’d like to read (it saves me a lot of money), but it seems like every recommendation/comment/blog entry from me sounds like a sales pitch.
November 29th, 2012 at 13:42
1,2,3, 11, and 12. I started reading Murakami because Tony Leung mentioned mentioned him in an interview.
Alain de Botton’s How Proust Can Change Your Life is funny, especially that part where Proust meets James Joyce.
amypond: “he sounds like an infomercial.” >> hahaha
November 29th, 2012 at 13:50
Best summation of Malcolm Gladwell.
November 29th, 2012 at 13:54
turmukoy: Great! Suggest you start endurance training now by watching Chinese opera and Tarkovsky movies (Stalker, Solaris, Andrei Rublev—beautiful stuff, but long and slow).
November 30th, 2012 at 01:11
Proust? Mukhang masaya yan. Sali ako. Dapat simulan natin ng January para matapos natin ng 2013 pa rin =)
November 30th, 2012 at 22:27
Recently, 4. BBC’s Parade’s End was so satisfying I’m reading Ford Madox Ford.
December 1st, 2012 at 01:36
Sali din ako sa Proust Proust-yekto (ngek).
December 1st, 2012 at 09:22
Doesn’t work: the ‘st’ is pronounced so ‘proost-yekto’ sounds Russian.
December 1st, 2012 at 23:01
I’d love to complete the Penguin Deluxe Edition of In Search of Lost Time (because of the covers and because of the variety of translators). I thought of starting once all the volumes are out, but I might volunteer anyway. Looks like the project could help.
December 2nd, 2012 at 01:33
I’d like to add something on the list. There are some people who choose by the title per se. I picked The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by this method (?) because I just like the sound of it. A friend picked Never Let Me Go because she likes the drama that the title creates in her mind.
There are also some who pick by number of pages, particularly those who try to finish a number of books for a given period or those who can’t seem to commit to anything longer than 500 pages. I used to alternate between slim books and tomes, but I somehow got rid of it.
December 2nd, 2012 at 11:23
That’s how we picked Who Sleeps With Katz and Skippy Dies, among others.
December 2nd, 2012 at 17:38
Sometimes I pick books based on the fonts used. Or the smell of the pages.
December 3rd, 2012 at 20:53
For me, it’s usually #’s 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 12.
Based on title: “Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures” by Vincent Lam, “Island of the Sequined Love Nun” by Christopher Moore, “The Private Lives of Pippa Lee”, by Rebecca Miller
Slight modification on #5 – recommended by a friend… or favorite writer/artist:
Recommended by Neil Gaiman:
– Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (Susanna Clarke)
– Heart-Shaped Box (Joe Hill, a true son of his father – Stephen King)
– The Man who was Thursday (G.K. Chesterson)
December 5th, 2012 at 01:05
I Curse the River of Time by Per Petterson.