How do you pick which NYRB to read?

Do you just go by the blurb on the back? Or the reviews on LT, Amazon, etc? Or who writes the intros?

I usually look at the reviews on either LT or Amazon and sometimes check the author's page on Wikipedia. Lately, I've been getting recommendations from this group. Several of the books have been mentioned in one of my books about books (Book Lust or The Rough Guide to Cult Fiction). I picked up The Outcry and The Other House because they were by Henry James, but a lot of the authors I don't know just off the top of my head. I bought Monsieur Proust because it was about, well, Proust.

I often read the blurb, look up information about the author, if I am on line I'll read reviews but if I have the book in hand I read the first few pages to decide if I want to read it- the first few pages are generally a clincher for me.

I'll often pick a book if someone whose taste is similar to mine recommends it. I used to look at cover blurbs but no longer find these reliable. I tend to look at reviews on independent reviewing sites. The New York Times used to provide fairly decent information, but over the last decade or so the reviewers there make every book sound like the next great novel. In general, I haven't been impressed by the books detailing books one must read. The lists are too predictable.

Urania - what reviewing sites do you use? I agree that the NY Times does tend to either praise books to the sky or criticize them to such an extent that, even if they mention some redeeming characteristics, the review is overwhelmingly negative.

If you mean how do I decide to buy them, it's mostly by browsing in stores or on the NYRB web site. As for choosing what I read, it's like anything else -- the fancy has to strike me.

Today, in the mail, I got The Unpossessed by Tess Slesinger, which I got from Amazon because I found the back blurb enticing (and, in consideration of what urania1 says in #3, I hope I shall not be disappointed).