While it's fantastic that we have so many books so readily available to us from so many different sources, sometimes this can lead to a problem of just too much choice. So today I'm going to try to give some advice on how to (hopefully) pick out the best books. I'll try to avoid the really obvious suggestions of recommendations from friends, family, etc.
Read the middle pages
If a book doesn't seem like it's going anywhere or doing anything by the middle, then what are the chances that it will suddenly decide to pick up in the home stretch? And, are you really going to want to read through to the end to find out whether it does?
Judge a book by it's cover
It's a really bad idea for life in general, but it can be applied really well to books. A lot of time and energy goes into designing every cover, because publishers recognize that often people will be skimming though dozens of books, and they want theirs to stand out.
One thing that I think should set off some pretty massive warning bells is when the name of the writer is written in bigger font then the title (I am looking at you, Nicholas Sparks). What are they selling, the book or the writer?