I read a lot of books about a lot of things. For example, I recently read a collection of autobiographical childhood stories from the 1940s and 1950s set in my hometown of Sheffield, England. Written by Fred Pass, this thought-provoking cornucopia of colorful tales is called Weerz me dad?

Also, I just finished a very interesting Billy Joel Biography (I was surprised to learn he was the source of so many of the songs I’ve heard on the radio over the decades), and I’m currently reading Paul Eddington’s autobiography, So Far, So Good.

My interest in this latter tome came about because I’m re-watching the classic Yes Minister TV comedy series from the 1980s on Britbox. When I mentioned this to my dear old mum, she informed me that she’d seen one of the lead characters, Paul Eddington, live on stage in Sheffield when she was a young lady in her early twenties. It seems that Paul was a member of the Sheffield Repertory Theater, which was based at the Sheffield Playhouse (as was).

But we digress, as is my wont. I just started a book called The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. Mysteriously, I don’t remember buying it. I was passing a pile of books waiting to be read in my study when this little rascal caught my eye. Where did it come from? Who knows?

I’ve only perused the first couple of chapters, but it’s certainly captured my attention. I don’t want to give anything away, but if you’d asked me a couple of days ago if I had any regrets in life, I would have answered largely in the negative. In fact, I would probably have replied that my biggest regret was that I hadn’t been more careful with my money when I was younger. Also, that I hadn’t planned my finances in such a way that I could have retired years ago (as opposed to working until I drop, which seems to be my probable future unless my master plan comes into fruition, i.e., I win the lottery).

As I say, I’ve only read a couple of the early chapters in The Midnight Library, but I’m already wracked with introspection as to the myriad little things I could have refrained from doing or that I could have done better in times gone by.

When I’m buying a book, I put a lot of stock on personal recommendations from friends. I also rely on the overall score and the number of ratings on Amazon. My own book, Bebop to the Boolean Boogie, has an average score of 4.7 with 52 ratings, which I always thought was “not bad” (as we English might say if we mean “rather good”).

I just took a quick tour around Amazon. Another book I read a few weeks ago, We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis Taylor has a 4.5 score with 25,342 ratings, which is outstanding. Similarly, Wool (the first in the Silo trilogy) by Hugh Howey has a 4.6 score with 45,991 ratings, which is mind-boggling.

Out of interest, I just bounced over to look at The Midnight Library page on Amazon. Oh, my goodness gracious! This book has a 4.3 score with 253,766 ratings. It’s hard enough to persuade your nearest and dearest to support something on anything, so it blows my mind that more than a quarter of a million people took the time to rate this book.

This certainly makes a statement. Now I cannot wait to return home and carry on reading. What say you? How do you decide upon which books you are going to devote your precious time and resources?