After a grueling sprint to the finish on my latest manuscript, last week I revisited a forgotten passion.
With a birthday gift card in my hand, I visited my local Big Chain bookstore and spent an hour browsing, with no particular idea what I’d buy. I can’t tell you the last time I’ve indulged in such a pleasure. As an author, I know a lot of authors, talk a lot of book, and read quite a few reviews. Generally, my purchases are hurried, often made online, and all too often consist of books I feel I “should” read for one reason or another.
But yesterday, I wanted to do it the old-fashioned way. Simply walk among the shelves to see what caught my fancy. Only after leaving the store did I sit back to analyze how I’d made my selections, one hardcover and another mass market paperback, both of them thrillers. (I write romantic thrillers, but enjoy “straight” suspense as well, along with lots of other stuff. And I was in a mood for a good, fast scare.)
On walking into the store, I was immediately snared by the new hardcovers with the great placement. I picked up several I had heard of but wasn’t in the mood for any of them. Next a cover caught my eye, not because of its splashiness or beauty or what have you, but because the title (Sweetheart by Chelsea Cain) was completely at odds with the thriller-like cover art.
That incongruity enticed me to pick up the book and read the jacket. After learning it was a follow-up to Cain’s well-reviewed bestseller Heartsick (Tagline: love hurts. Sometimes its torture.) I scooted upstairs to the paperback mystery racks and grabbed one of two spine-out copies of that book instead.
The hardcover I picked up (after deciding to bypass a number by favorite authors because their first pages didn’t appeal and I was in the mood for something new-to-me), was Brad Meltzer’s new release, The Book of Lies. I’ve never read him before and I don’t really love DaVinci-code type ancient-artifact plots, but somehow, the book’s premise so intrigued me, I had to check it out.
So what about the rest of you? What was the last new book you purchased purely on impulse? What about it captured your attention?
By the way, this ubercool illustration is from Austin Kleon. Is that awesome or what?
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