Take the poll: What made you buy your last book, and where did you buy it?

[Kathryn Lilley]

What makes you decide on a particular book to purchase? A review? Word of mouth? A blog post? And where did you buy your last book?
Visit the polls over at Book Buzz and cast your vote!
http://book-buzzz.blogspot.com/2009/11/how-did-you-decide-to-buy-yo...

[Kathryn Lilley]

Thanks Susan, IJ, for your comments! That's one vote for buying based on a bookstore browse, one for social networking. Be sure to vote in the poll over at Book Buzz so we have a record! Thanks!

[Thomas Grant Bruso]

Susan Hill's THE VARIOUS HAUNTS OF MEN. Purchased it at Borders during a quick browse. The story gripped me from the description on the dust jacket.

[I. J. Parker]

I bought Hilary Mantel's WOLF HALL from Amazon because I saw someplace on the Internet (perhaps Sarah Weinman's blog) that it won the Man Booker award. Before clicking my "buy with one click" tab, I read a sample page of text. She can write.

[Kathryn Lilley]

I confess I'm also a "first two sentence" watchdog. If I don't like the very first paragraph, I'm very unlikely to purchase a book. Thanks for your comment, Dan!

[Dan Coleman]

I read what reviews I come across, more as announcements and entertainment than guides, but none influences what I buy. I make that determination on the first two sentences or first three pages, if it's someone with whom I'm not that familiar. If it doesn't grab me by then, it doesn't matter who it is. Fiction, I mean. But I've put down books early that others read through, and I've read through books that bored me to death(re: Grisham's A Painted House-couldn't put it down).

I'm especially patient with new writers or ones new to me, like to give them extra rope, a breath or two more, before hanging them.

Covers don't grab me. I might hold a grudge against the cover designer or publisher, but not the author's writing. If the book is poorly edited, in my opinion, I don't hold it against the author, unless the author was responsible for the editing, as is the case in so many self-pub'd. books. I really enjoy looking for the needle in the haystack, though my life doesn't revolve around books. But if somebody wants my ten to thirty bucks, he or she better be worth it.

I last bought a book in a retail bookstore. I root like hell for books I have to pay for.