Yoohoo Bibliofriends,

It’s Top Ten Tuesday time again! Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly list themed book prompt hosted by Jana @That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s theme was the top ten things which make you pick up a book. Here’s mine!

• Covers – Now I know there’s that famous saying not to judge books by their covers – but there are some freaking amazing cover design artists out there nowadays that I think we can safely relegate that proverb to the olden days when books were leather bound and cover art was non-existent! I’m such a sucker for a pretty, detailed front cover.
• Author faves – If there’s an author I like then it’s a dead cert that I’m going to try and read their entire back catalogue. I seem to have developed a go-to list of certain ones including Carlos Ruiz Zafon, Neil Gaiman and J.K. Rowling/Robert Galbraith.
• Bookstagram/Goodreads hype – It’s fair to say that if the people I’m following are raving about a certain book and I start to see it all over my feed then curiosity gets the better of me and before you know it, I’ve bought another book to add to the never-ending TBR.
• Offers – I loved it when Waterstones did their 3 for 2 offer. It seems that Blackwells are the only store that does this now as most places are buy one get one half price. You’d always end up getting the third book just because you were essentially getting it for free. Also sale items / charity shop bargains are winners. I’m forever scouring the shelves at my local charity shops or the reduced sections in bookshops just to find a bargain!
• Favourite themes – witchcraft/magic/water/enemies-to-lovers/flawed or tragic heroes/fairytale retellings are all guaranteed to make me hit that ‘Want to Read’ button on my Goodrerads account.
• An exclusive – Cover/chapter/interview/sampler…you name it! The idea of any kind of exclusivity is more than enough to tempt me into picking up a certain read or edition of a novel.
• Seeing an author at an event – Cheltenham hosts their Literary Festival every October. It’s one of the highlights of my year and I always come away from the 10 days with a whole haul of new books from authors whose events I’ve been to; it’s an additional temptation when they’ve been signed too.
• A sequel/series – If I love the first novel in a series then it’s pretty much guaranteed that I’ll have to pick up the next one just to find out what happened next.
• Reviews – Whether they be online ones from my favourite bloggers or those little comment cards you see in the books shops, be persuasive enough in how much you loved it and I’ll fall for it hook, line and sinker.
• Freebies – Readers First is a great website for getting free books. You read a first look, submit your first impression then you’re entered into a draw to win a copy of the book to review. For every review you write you get points and points lead to prizes – in this case, more books! I managed to get free copies of To Kill a Kingdom and The Wicked King through this website. It’s pretty awesome!

There we have it. What makes you guys want to pick up a book? Drop me a comment to chat!

Keep reading!

T xx