How do you choose a book? The size? (I especially love slim books, 200 pages or less). The cover? The hype? The title? The smell? All of the above? When we're book shopping it's usually with the three boys. Peaceful and quiet choosing time is limited, even when we spend an age in the children's section while they choose theirs, I usually get a hurried ten minutes to see what I might like to read. Last week we were in Hodges Figgis in Dublin and as I'm nearly finished H is for Hawk I thought I'd pick up something new. Immediately I saw The Search Warrant I knew it was for me. Thin, intriguingly titled and about the disappearance of a girl in Paris during the second world war it was ticking a lot of boxes. I flipped it open about half way through and read, in the bustling bookshop, a few paragraphs. That is how I choose. If it feels right, if I like the writing, if there's an atmosphere, if the voices of the characters sound real even though I don't know the story then I buy the book. Oh, and the size, the cover, the hype, the title and the smell also count.
***This is my June choice for The Year in Books at the always lovely Circle of Pine Trees***
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