💬 Friday Thread: What books have you read so far this month & did you like them?
and how I browse at the bookstore + seven titles I discovered there this week
Housekeeping - don’t forget you can find all of my past newsletters organized by categories on the homepage of my site itsbooktalk.substack.com . Here you’ll also find a handy “tabs” display at the top for access to additional things I post on Notes
Hello, happy Friday!
How are you? December continues to be a weird reading month for me. I can’t settle into any long books and after sampling so many books on my Kindle earlier this week and not landing on anything that grabbed me, I headed to the bookstore for a browse. Spending time at the bookstore always invigorates my reading motivation and nine times out of ten I find a book (or five) I haven’t heard of that sounds good to me.
I thought it would be fun to share a bit more about my bookstore browsing process, as well as the books that caught my eye while I was at Barnes & Noble this week. I’m contemplating doing this type of “bookstore discoveries” post in the new year, so if you like seeing the pics with links please let me know in the comments.
How I Browse at the Bookstore
First, I start at the front display tables which are often paperback new releases and themed tables depending on the season. I’m looking for titles I haven’t heard of and/or ones I recognize but don’t know what they’re about. If I see something that interests me I’ll read the first paragraph on the inside flap or the back of the book. Side note: I don’t tend to read more because often the publisher’s synopsis gives way too much away. If it sounds at all like something I’d like based on that first paragraph synopsis, I’ll often open the book and read the first few sentences or paragraphs to see if I like the writing style. If I do, I’ll take a picture of it.
I then move to the hardcover books on the larger standing display shelves and I do the same process. The new release hardcovers I’m mainly looking at are in the fiction, mystery and thriller, and nonfiction genres.
From here I’ll check out the themed display tables and end caps around the store. Recently this end cap of “This is the Year You Finally Read…” books caught my eye. This actually is the year I finally read The Goldfinch and Never Let Me Go and loved both so I needed a pic of this entire end cap of books B&N have curated here. I definitely want to check out James Baldwin’s Go Tell It On the Mountain . Do you have thoughts on any of these other titles?
Next I’ll do a walk through of the rest of the store, paying close attention to the books that booksellers have forward facing on the shelves because those tend to be ones someone at the store has read and recommends. I’ll also be looking at shelf talkers - the display tags under certain books that say why a bookseller recommends the book. I look at shelf talkers much less often at B&N these days because their shelf talkers this past year have mainly been blurbs from books which, considering book publishing’s blurb system is broken , isn’t helpful. Also, on a shelf talker at a bookstore I don’t want to know what a book blurb says, I want to know what a bookseller thinks! It makes me wonder if B&N’s booksellers are not reading books anymore.
During all of this browsing, I’ve taken pictures of the books I find interesting and that I may want to read. I also pick a select few that really “hit” me for one reason or another and I’ll take those to the cafe, get a latte and sit and read a few pages of each. If they all interest me I’ll check library availability on the Libby app. Usually there’s one or two that aren't available to download for my kindle or grab in print at the library and from there I’ll decide which one to buy.
Taking pictures of the books that interest me means I have easy access to remembering them at any time in the future, plus since I post pics here and on Bookstagram I’ll have a photo ready if and when I want to feature the book.