[jyriand]

I would follow Marshall MacLuhan's advice. Open a book on page 69, read it. If you like what you read, buy it.

Also: "Open the book to page ninety-nine and read, and the quality of the whole will be revealed to you." -- Ford Madox Ford

[jgtrosh]

My father's rule is to only read by opening books (new, old, known, unknown, already read, halfway read) randomly and just plowing through that random part of the book. I don't think I would personally enjoy that constant destructuration but it help get a global vision of many books fast.