Usually, I choose books to read through three ways:

1. Recommendations by family, friends or book reviews (which includes critics, bloggers and journalists)

I ask around a lot and try to find out from my family and friends the books they’ve read and what they liked, loved and hated. From that information, I can decide whether a book is up to my liking. There are hits and misses, of course. But thankfully, there are more hits than misses.

I also consult best-seller lists. I try to study the top books in the list and determine whether I’d be interested in reading them. Or I read book review articles or blogs to find out the good books worth reading.

2. Instinct

I like going to bookstores and just browsing the books in the store. I usually go to the new releases first and grab the first one that catches my eye. Then I go to different departments and go through the same motions. This is a little dangerous since it follows some impulsive shopping, but I’ve made some good discoveries with this method.

3. Familiarity

I am always on the look out for new books from my favorite authors. Luckily, I have several authors on my watchlist, and they release at least one new book every year.

How do you choose the books you read? Do you have a certain method you use to choose a book? Which ones work more than others?