Book Shopping

I just got back from a trip to my local favorite new/used bookstore.  I finished the Nazi book I was reading forever, started another book (a novel) which I decided not to finish, and I felt like looking for something new & unexpected to read next.  No preconceptions.

After cruising the racks for a couple hours I decided there are four types of books:

1.  Books whose subject does not interest me. By far the vast majority of books in any bookstore.  I KNOW there are tons of really well-written wonderful even revelatory books out there -- so many that I cannot hope to even scratch the surface -- so my first filter when choosing a book is, is the subject of interest?  Most aren't.  Although my interests change fairly often so you never know.

2.  Books on interesting subjects written for more intelligent readers than me. I am forever seeing books that look good, but on thumbing through a few pages they're so dense or convoluted or footnoted that I know I could never sustain the effort to read them.  When I was a teen I would happily tackle books like this but I haven't the dedication, concentration (or brain cells?) anymore.

3. Books on interesting subjects written for readers less intelligent than me. Conversely I also see (and have accidentally read) a lot of books that are so darn obvious and common sense that I get essentially nothing out of reading them.  It's not always easy to make this determination ahead of time, but I've resolved to try to avoid buying these in the future.

4.  Interesting books that can teach me something. Rare but worth the search.  Even within this tiny fraction of a fraction in any given bookstore there are ALWAYS many more books I want than I can afford or ever hope to read.

Incidentally the book I brought home is called "Would You Kill The Fat Man?" by David Edmonds, and it's about how morality and logic are interlinked.  It met my criteria.