Maybe you don’t need help finding your next great book to read. Certainly, there are plenty of random and not-so-random ways to choose. Judging a book by its cover is a classic. You can judge by a book’s title, by its popularity,  by its blurbs. And, oh yeah, by its actual content. There’s also the theory of the “Page 69 Test” (and its cousin, the “Page 40 Test”) put forth by communications theorist Marshall McLuhan: “Turn to page 69 of any book and read it. If you like that page, buy the book.”

Naturally, we love all of our Algonquin books and think they’re each stellar in their own right, but for kicks (we’re easily amused) we decided to put the theory to the test with a few of our recent releases. We think they’re excellent examples of the theory in action. But decide for yourself:

(If you want to see the test applied to a variety of other titles, check out The Page 69 Test blog and a post about the Page 40 Test over at The Millions.)

 From Tim Johnston’s Descent      

From Michele Raffin’s The Birds of Pandemonium

From Gabrielle Zevin’s The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry

From Lin Enger’s The High Divide