Book Buying Tally 2010 and Why My Habits Surprised Me

Lookin' at Lucky walked all over the Haskell field yesterday. Mwhahahaha. No one can say that Preakness victory was a fluke now. Anyway...

I thought it would be fun for me to visit the reasons why I bought the books I did the last few trips the bookstore. Why these books over the others on the shelves?

Word of Mouth
Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta -- I've heard so many great things about this novel and I'm on quite a bit of a literary kick so I decided to pick this one up.

Paper Towns by John Green -- This one basically has the same story as Jellicoe Road. I heard a lot of awesome things about it and it's author, I'm on a literary kick, it was a paperback. I had no reasons not to bring it home.

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan -- This was another novel that I picked up mostly because of word of mouth. Also because I want to read the Dead Tossed Waves.

Author
The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan -- I love Riordan and that's pretty much the reason why I picked up this book. It came out between his two Camp Half-Blood series and I love his use of mythology so I figured, why not?

Looking for Alaska by John Green -- Bookstore didn't have An Abundance of Katherines and I needed another John Green book.

Book in a series
City of Glass by Cassandra Clare -- Read the first two and there was no way I could pass up reading the finale. Not after CoA.

Linger by Maggie Stiefvater -- I read Shiver and there was no way I was going to wait any longer to read this one.

Cover/Book trailer
Rules of Attraction by Simone Elkeles -- I saw the book trailer a few months ago on Pub Rants and decided I had to have this book. I read and enjoyed Perfect Chemistry while I was waiting so as soon as I could, I snatched this one up as well.

Sea Change by Aimee Friedman -- the cover was the first thing to catch my eye on this one as I was skimming through Amazon's new releases one day. It's definite to-drool-over. The concept just sealed the deal for me and when I saw it in the store, I just couldn't resist.

Other
When It Happens by Susane Colasanti -- There were a few reasons that added up to me getting this book. One, I was looking for a nice YA contemp read in the vein of Sarah Dessen. WIH was in paperback so I figured, why not? It sounded like a sweet read so it came home with me.

Sparkling Cyanide and Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie -- There's a whole story behind the purchase of these two books. The short version is I saw the Unicorn and the Wasp (a Doctor Who episode where the Doctor goes back in time and meets Agatha Christie) and decided that I wanted to read a couple of her books. Both of these are referenced in the episode so I grabbed them both because I couldn't decide which one I wanted more.

The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson -- I have a novel in the works that features a character waking up from a coma (though that's not the main focus of the story). When I found out this book was along similar lines, I had to pick it up.

I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore -- this one was another find while I was skimming through Amazon. You may recognize it as one of the features on a New Releases post a couple weeks ago. The summary grabbed me and when I saw it in the bookstore (I didn't even know it was out yet!) there was no way I was walking away.

Final Tally
23% Word of mouth
15% Liked author
15% Book in a series
15% Cover/book trailer
8% Similar to another author
8% Referenced elsewhere
8% Similar to a WiP
8% Back summary only

These numbers really surprised me. A year ago back summary would've been a lot higher and word of mouth would've been a lot lower. It really shows how my reading tastes have changed. I was also surprised to see that covers and book trailers were such a large portion of my reading as cover used to be the last thing I cared about.

Take a look at the books you've bought lately and look for trends. Did any of it surprise you?

Comments

Marieke said…
Reading books because of Doctor Who is, quite obviously, the best reason ever. :D

Some great books on that list! A few will have to go on my wishlist :)
Huh, very cool analysis! It makes me wonder what my book-buying breakdown would look like... (Although I get a lot of my books from the library 'cause I'm poor. Do they count? Haha.)

Ever since I joined AW, I've noticed that I read more books from word of mouth. That's where I first heard of Jellicoe Road actually!
Nomes said…
i love this post

i get pumped about books from authors i love

also, when enough people rave about them and the premise appeals to me

also, i will pick up a book if i like the cover, then keep it if i like the blurb and first few pages. but thats from the library - no real risk there.

and yay for jellicoe road. love that book so hard

xx

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