I Go to the Library to Look at Covers

Writers tend to start with bland titles.

But as they publish more, and as publishers get involved and optimize for sales, titles get sharper. More memorable. More catchable.

And books with those kinds of titles tend to actually become famous.

Book titles feel like a mirror of the time they're written in.

Even when two titles mean the same thing, the phrasing shifts — the rhythm, the word order, the tone — to match what people of that moment respond to.

So if you walk into the new releases section of a library and just read the titles on the spines, you can get a pretty clear read on what's trending right now. What people are anxious about. What they're hoping for.

I haven't finished a book in about a year.

I go to the library every week. I browse the shelves, something catches my eye, and I borrow it — genuinely wanting to read it.

Then I carry it around for a week. A return notice comes. I go back, return it, and borrow something else.

I think I've been going to the library to look at covers.

Not necessarily a bad thing. Maybe that's its own kind of reading.