I recently had a friend accuse me of “judging a book by its cover” and I would like to explain what is wrong with this cliche.
First: It is obvious that the only way to accurately judge a book is by reading it. HOWEVER, since there are exactly 42.7 gazillion books in the known universe, and since I can not read them all or even read a significant portion of them, I must somehow choose which of those books to read.
I have several tools I use to make those choices:
- I do in fact use a book’s cover as one of the ways of deciding to read a book. Why do you think they bother to put covers on books? The purpose is to entice you to purchase and read the book. The front cover gives you the title, author and a very brief idea of what the book is about. Those are necessary, but usually not sufficient bits of information. The back cover usually has recommendations by other authors or experts. I generally look at WHO is recommending the book rather than what they say since only positive recommendations are ever given. Then the inside flap gives a summary of the actual book. All of these are useful in making a choice of whether to purchase or read a book. Is the book by an author whose work I have previously enjoyed? Is the title intriguing? Is the genre one I find interesting? Is the actual subject of the book something that peaks my interest? Saying not to judge a book by its cover eliminates a helpful tool useful in deciding whether to read/purchase a book.
- I value the recommendations of friends who know what books I tend to enjoy.
- I read the book’s reviews on Amazon. I always look for the most highly rated positive reviews and the most highly rated negative reviews to try and get a feel for a book.
- I listen weekly to several book oriented podcasts and often select books based on the comments and opinions they have about books they have read and recommend. In particular, I find value in the podcast about general fiction called Professional Book Nerds and on sci-fi and fantasy books from the podcast Sword and Laser. There are other good ones, but these two are among my favorites.
As a man who will turn 61 next month, I have become aware that my time to read books is bounded. I have therefore put a high value on choosing which books to read, and even more difficult, which of the books I have begun are worth finishing.
Actually dumping a book – not finishing a book i’ve started – is something that has been very hard for me. Maybe it’s OCD, or some other malady, but i have a compulsion to continue plodding through a book which simply isn’t holding my interest. Nevertheless, in the past year or so, i’ve begun to be more ruthless about moving on from a book that isn’t doing anything for me either in an entertaining way, or isn’t providing a useful perspective or information.
I have enough unread books on my bookshelves to last me several years, yet I continue to purchase more books. There simply are far too many great books waiting out there to be read to waste time on books which aren’t (to me at least) great. I have found that there is value in judging which books to purchase and read, in part at least, by their covers.