What prompts you to try a new author?

r3nu4l

So folks,

We all have our favourite authors but what prompts you to try somebody new?

For me, if a book is at a knock-down price and I've vaguely heard of the author I'll buy it and give it a go. This is how I started reading Neil Gaiman

I started reading Peter Robinson because I got one of his books free with the Times (UK). I've bought several since.

I saw an interview with Ken Bruen on Tubridy Tonight when I was home in Ireland last Christmas. I'd never heard of him before that but he seemed interesting so I tried Cambridge Central Library for his books and they had the book he was promoting on Tubridy so I went for it and would recommend his stuff to anyone.

What does it for you?

EDIT - meant to make it multiple choice!! Can the mods change this?

John

I'm a big fan of the random book buy. Head to a section of the book store that I'm interested in and pick whatever looks good (sometimes I even look at the blurb!). Or I go for something that an artist I like has mentioned as an influence such as HP Lovecraft and William Blake from listening to the music of Coil.

BossArky

I wouldn't be a fan of picking up random books, cos there is so much cr@p out there and so little time to read all the good stuff.

Word of mouth for me.

aoifeme

Word of mouth though I have to admit sometimes quirky covers get me

Also I have a goo at reviews in the times and gaurdian and see if anything is of interest

OSiriS

Usually I'll go by word of mouth, but recently I realised that with all the modern day thrillers I've been ignoring the classics. I wandered into Easons and was amazed how cheap they were, leaving the store with about 5000 pages of some of the greatest works of literature ever written for less than the price of a modern novel.

Tar.Aldarion

I go into a book shop, read the backs of books and briefly flick through. I buy a book that sounds interesting...or seven.

Usually I have never heard of the author.

r3nu4l

I find Word of Mouth can be so-so. It's great if you know the person you are listening to has pretty much the same tastes as you but otherwise...

I'm very glad that I listened to a friend reccommend Jonathon Norrell and Mr. Strange. One of the best books I've ever read and I've read lots of books.

You hardly ever hear anyone reccommend a classic any more but I usually go to the cheap book shops and buy the 'complete and unabridged' versions for £1 (here in Cambridge). As OSiriS said, you can walk out of the shop with a massive amount of books to read for the same price as a modern novel. :cool:

BossArky

Of course you need to trust and know the tastes of someone... hopefully they will be well read... before taking up a suggestion of them.

i.e. if you are going by word of mouth and walk into a playschool you will leave with a heap of Barney the dinosaur books

Dades

I frequently go by word of mouth, though I've had both hits and misses from Boards recommendations.
I won't embarrass anyone with the misses, but A Song of Ice and Fire kept me in bliss for months.

Other than that I'm working my way through the Sci-fi Legends series. (Just finished The Forever War - brilliant).