I bought a book yesterday, even though I promised myself that I wasn't going to buy any more books until I was finished with the several books I have either started and abandoned or am trawling my way through. I have a tendency to promise these sorts of things and then break my promises to me (but I'm getting wise to my own ruse). Besides, Plato's Five Dialogues is tough going, it really is.

Usually, as was the case yesterday, I have a concept or subject -sometimes an author- in mind when I walk in, but seldom do I leave with the book I had some vague idea I would be purchasing. For years now I have thought that I would like to read Jeffrey Eugenides 'Middlesex', as his 'The Virgin Suicides' was excellent. Every time I go to get it though, something else grabs me instead. Is it the cover? The number of pages? The subject matter? Because his last book was so good does not automatically guarantee this one will be as equally captivating. And we do have the tendency to revisit the familiar over and over, although authors, like actors we have trusted to make good films, often let us down. I'm looking at you, John Cusack. No more rom-coms, please.

Reputation is another great signifier. The cover screams; "This book was a New YorK Times Bestseller!" or you are cornered at a party and handed a well-thumbed tome as if it were a snap-lock baggy of mary jane, "You simply have to read this, it will change your life!".

Neither of these statements made 'Twilight' or 'The Secret' more appealing to me.

But there is a reason why Kerouac's 'On The Road' endures, or why Orwell's 'Nineteen Eighty Four' is as relevant today as it was when it was written 70-something years ago. Reputation can be hit and miss, but often it has been the main reason why I have wanted to read a book. That, and the fact that I have heard that they'll be turning it into a movie soon, and no doubt taking a pick axe to the denouement. Like 'Tristram Shandy', some books cannot be made into films. That certainly doesn't stop Hollywood from trying, but I digress.

So then, it's title, cover, dust jacket. They draw us in with their clever turns-of-phrase, their enigmatic artwork and font choice. This is really all we have to go on.There is no other way of telling if it's going to be your milky cup of tea with two sugars, you have to dive in and check it out for yourself. Books don't have a single on high rotation that we can familiarise ourselves with before we decide to buy the whole book. The dust jacket synopsis acts as our preview. We're quoting other authors, celebs and critics. Did Deepak Chopra give this one the spiritual equivalent of the thumbs up? Is Oprah giving it the full couch treatment? (I dare say if it gets Deepak's and Oprah's seal of approval, it's pretty much home and hosed).

There is someone, somewhere whose job it is to read the title, condense the mammoth tome into just the finest points, to get right to the pithy centre of it and show you why this book must be in your life, why the author will speak to you, and you alone. This book will make you rich. This book is about the universal questions. This book is more interesting than your life. You've got 200 words. Off you go.