Linda Barnes is another author I recently discovered at the local charity store. It is Buy One Get One Free week this week so I was looking for a second book. Preferably a hard cover with large text because I hate small, thick paperbacks with tiny text. I just grabbed this one and am thoroughly enjoying it.
As a reader I tend to
- read the blurb on the back or jacket
- if that grabs me I read the first page
- if that grabs me I get it
- if I am not enjoying the book by about 30 pages in, I stop reading.
I have polled several of my classes on this, and many seem to force themselves to read to the end of a book, even if they are not enjoying it. But I always have so many books I want to read that I don’t finish if I don’t like it.
These are my latest charity shop finds. I am so grateful that the limited choice pushed me into a genre I almost never read – crime. I am thoroughly enjoying them. Once I have finished them, I return them to the charity to shop so they can find another person who will enjoy them.
As I tend to read everything on my Kindle these days I tend to get a sample first, read that, if it looks ok I buy the book and continue to read it. Although I’ve been caught out a few times with novels that I don’t past 50% because they are so badly written. I drop those off my Kindle and go on to something different.
Wow, you hit all my favorites. Michael Connolly’s protagonist, Harry Bosche, is a tv streaming series over here and it is great.
And my 92 y/o cousin got me onto Baldacci and she gave me a winner.
I am so glad I stumbled over these authors. I cannot get enough of Ballard and Bosch!
What a coincidence! I am reading both a Lee Childs book and a Baldacci book! I absolutely love the Lee Childs book! I love Jack Reacher! The story is written very simply and there are cliffhangers all over the place! I also liked the Baldacci book but less so than the Lee Childs one. In Germany, there are not really any charity shops. There are second hand shops but they are really not worth it. We do, however, have big phone boxes that they converted into local libraries. You can take books and leave books there. I got the Baldacci book from this box and I will be putting it back.
Regarding reading books until the end, I used to do that whether I liked the book or not, but now I tend to do it less. Since Netflix and co entered my home, I find I read a lot less (this needs to change!) so I don’t want to spend too much time on something that I don’t like when I could get started on something I like… But when I choose my next book to read, I want to make sure it’s something I will like!
I love that Jack Reacher novels are easy to read. I have read a couple on planes and they take no concentration at all!
That’s definitely my kind of book!… 😀