How To Choose A Good Book.(Interview)

Byline: INTERVIEWS BY ELLEN MILLER, DANIELLE PERGAMENT, AND SARAH VAN BOVEN

Expert advice on dressing for hot weather, planning an adventure vacation, and more.

An Interview With Mary Gay Shipley

Shipley is the owner of That Bookstore in Blytheville, in Blytheville, Arkansas, and has helped launch the careers of many writers, including John Grisham and Rebecca Wells.

The perfect beach read is one of summer's great pleasures, but people feel such pressure to pack the right thing for their vacation. If you know what questions to ask, finding a good book doesn't have to feel like homework.

Trust the experts. I'm biased, of course, but I believe that a good independent bookstore, where all the employees are obsessed with literature, is the best place to get a recommendation. And librarians are great readers who shouldn't be overlooked as resources. You can also check out booksense.com, which is run by the American Booksellers Association. Every month, owners of small bookstores across the country post feedback on new books, and the recommendations are compiled by category--especially helpful to mystery or science fiction buffs.

Open up. In my experience, readers want one of three things from a book during the summer: the chance to immerse themselves in a topic they know nothing about, a guilty pleasure that doesn't make them work too hard, or a classic. If you can tell a bookseller what you want to get out of a ...