How To Choose a Book

Before I begin.....21 followers?!?!! WOW, I never thought I'd see the day I got to double digits, let alone 21 :) Thanks to my new...supporters. I like that better than followers. :) And now back to your regularly scheduled programming.......

I had a very informative conversation with my two girls last night about checking out library books. I thought I would find out exactly how they decide what library books to choose. I was quite surprised by what I heard.

Princess Rhiannon opens a book to a random page and reads five paragraphs. If they are good and make her want to know more about the story, she checks it out. I thought this was funny, after all, she is nine years old and I really thought she read the back of the book to figure out if she would like it or not. Nope-she reads the back after she's done with the book. She says she reads the author information on the flap of the book about halfway through. I asked her if it was important to her to find out about the author. She said, "Well, not at first. But if I find that I'm really liking the book, then I go to read about the author. But, sometimes, it's just dumb stuff, like married with pets or kids. I like the ones that are funny." Hmmm I thought about my blog and the About Me section-while a lot of bloggers have very clever adaptations of their life-mine is simply married with kids. LOL I will have to take the Princess's advice and make it more...funny. :)

Princess Kayla opens a book and uses the five finger rule. If there are five words she can't read-the book is too hard and she puts it back. If there are NO words she can't read, it's too easy and she puts it back. As she explained, "Two or three or four big words are good for me to learn. But too many makes me mad." Okay-I can understand that. Princess Kayla is six and while she's learning to read like crazy-there are still some words that she can't 'sound out' and recognize.

I thought it was very interesting to hear these opinions. I have never checked out a book that way. I had a friend that read the last page. I never wanted to spoil the ending, so I was a simple 'read the back of the book' kinda gal. Then, I became devoted to certain authors and would pick up a book simply by their name being on the spine. It's amazing how different we are as readers and writers, isn't it? I love it...the more the merrier in any way!!

What about you? How do you choose your books? Do you think if Princess Rhiannon read five paragraphs in a random spot she would want your book?