The most direct way is reading reviews or through recommendations from friends. This method has two obvious problems. Reviews concentrate almost exclusively on new releases, and they are not of much use if you're interested in books older than a couple of months. The other thing is that even though a reviewer or a friend is giving a book high praise, your tastes may not be similar. Better just to rely on your own judgment.
Here is the method I use. It involves four steps. As example of a book that I've used these four steps on, I'll use Special Topics in Calamity Physic by Marisha Pessl.
The cover
The cover is the first thing I see, and I want it to intrigue me in some way. I go by the assumption that the author has chosen cover art, that expresses in some way the themes in the book, and the story it's going to tell. I know that there are probably cases where the marketing department screws the author over and goes with something hip, but in most cases I trust that the author has some say in the matter. The cover doesn't have to be pretty, as long as it says something about the book. The cover design on the 2006 Penguin paperback of Pessl's book is gorgeous and it looks worn down, as if it has appeared from a different age.
The title should pull you in, and somehow hint at everything that you'll read about, should you decide to pick up the book. I've always found that there are two types of titles that really hook me. The first is the one-word title. It can be simple, elegant, and still have layers of meaning. The other type is the long title. There is something aesthetic about the long title. Complexity is more easily achieved in a long title, and that is an excellent opportunity to let the readers in on what to expect. Pessl's title has a nice rythm. Two long words, one short, and then two long ones again. It looks good on the cover and the spine. It has a certain flair and rolls nicely off the tongue. It worked on me, and as I read the book, the title became more and more meaningful.
Plot description
Next step is reading what the book is about. You should have some idea about what stories you like reading, and just as importantly, what stories you don't like. This is often a gut reaction and there's not really a formula. Here's the plot description that got me hooked on Pessl's book:
“She found her teacher dead – hanging by a piece of electrical cord. The North Carolina police think it was suicide. Her former friends – the Bluebloods – blame her for being there. And her father tells her to leave it alone. But Blue van Meer is a student of books and can't let a mystery go. Because all her life puzzles, both complicated and intricate, have littered her path – her mother's death in a car crash; a childhood spent roaming from town to town; her dad's serial affairs.
Are these fantasies of a teenager too lonely or too clever for her own good? Or has Blue stumbled on something so dark, so devious that her whole world is about to be flipped upside-down?”
The fact that I ended up reading this book is interesting, because I'm not too fond of reading crime novels. But the mention of a main character who reads, did it for me. I have an affinity for books that in some way discuss literature in a fictional context. The hint at brutality in the death of the teacher was also interesting. Finally the set-up did not hint at a typical crime novel.
The final test
This is the final step in the process. I read the first page in the book, and then I flip to a random page in the middle of the book and read that as well. If these two pages are written in a style that I like, and the story still works for me, then I'll read the book. This final test is simply the book equivalent of the movie trailer. It is a way of making sure that the characters work, and that the author has a grip on the story.
That's it. Relatively simple on paper, but as with all things creative and pertaining to taste, a foolproof formula is very difficult to develop.
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