I love to read. I will pick up any book at any point in time and enjoy it. That is (unfortunately, if you ask my parents!) how I got into Stephen King books at a very young age. My dad had an autographed and loved copy of the book It used as a base for a speaker in the living room. I had chicken pox in second grade, had read through everything in my house, and decided it was time to read that book. My mom was horrified and took the book away. I'm sure that's where my love of horror and all things spooky began.
With this in mind, it's no surprise that when I go to the library to get books for my son Rio, I don't spend a lot of time seeing what they are about, and this is one of my efficiency hacks. My system is that I know what sections I am going to go to, so I immediately go to those sections and get the number of books I need. Currently, I will go to the board book section and grab 2-3 books from there. Up next is the bilingual section where I grab 3 or so books that are at least partly in Spanish (my husband's family speaks Spanish, so it's important to me that our son can communicate with his family as well). Then, I go to the holiday section and grab at least 2 Halloween ones every time (because Rio was born on Halloween) and then 2 for whatever holiday is coming up next (so right now, Easter). My time from starting to pick out books to checking out at the scanning area is typically around five minutes or less. Those five minutes are going to give me exponentially more quality time with my son where I am also helping his brain develop.
In between these sections, I might grab another book (or more). It's okay to judge a book by it's cover. Sometimes, there are books that have awards on the cover. Grab those! That means others liked it enough for it to win a prize or two. Maybe some bright colors catch your eye. Maybe there's an illustation on the cover for a location you want to visit. Judge the book by its cover and grab it.
With this method, sometimes I might come across books I don't agree with, which means you might too. This can create discussions with your child where you talk about the things you don't agree with, which can help build a wonderful relationship even more and also work on your child's developing critical thinking skills. Sometimes I come across books with wonderful and unexpected important messages that I can take to heart as well as instilling these ideals in my son at a young age.
You might love the books you pick out so much more than you ever imagined; you might hate one or two; you might be ambivalent about a handful. The important thing is that you are reading to your child and being efficient about picking out the media you are going to use to spend the time.
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