How do you choose your books?

These days,  I don't have much time to read. Between rewrites, my upcoming book release, and the launch of WoMen's Literary Cafe, I don't have much down time, and I try to spend what little down time I have with my family. Reading usually gets squeezed in somewhere between midnight and one o'clock in the morning. If I'm lucky, I'll get through one book per month. I treasure that reading time. It's one peaceful hour (if I can stay awake), that allows me to disappear into another world, get lost in someone else's drama. For that reason, I try to make sure that I'm going to enjoy what I read. 

When I choose a book, I first look at the cover. The image has to call to me in order for me to want to flip it over and read the summary of the book. As anauthor, I realize that is not the best way to choose a book, however, I'd be lying if I said I did otherwise. If the cover and the summary appeal to me, I then open the book and read the first few pages. The writing has to draw me in. I have always assumed that following that path–cover, flip and read, open and scan–is how everyone chose their books. I was wrong.

It's recently been pointed out to me that many people read several reviews before choosing a book, and some even take it further and read reviews from several different sites before making their selection, while others read the back of the book before considering the cover, and still others read the first few pages before reading the summary of the book. Then you have those who simply order every book by an author they love , regardless of what the book is about or what the reviews say (of course I LOVE those readers).