Great question! I will separate my answer into chapters so it'll be easier for the admins bc I have a LOT of opinions on this! :)

1. The Cover

Let me start by saying that I judge books (or at least choose them) based on their cover (and title). Covers are what catch my eye when I'm browsing shelves or looking through a stack of books, they're what call: Read me! Read me! I judge if a book's a serious book based on if it has a serious cover, if it's lighthearted if it's cover is too, if it's funny, how the characters are like, the setting... I think it's pretty hard not to judge a book by it's cover. I love covers that are:

a. pleasing to look at (a nice color scheme, nice drawings, nice format/design, cool title...)

b. interesting to look at again and again. Some covers are a bit like an easter egg hunt, there're little details hidden inside that you only realize when you read the book and are like, ohhh, so that's what that flying unicorn is about...

c. unique in whatever way. Some covers are textured, some have raised words, some are just... well, unique!

Some covers that I really like (and are also really good books, so you can see how my "judging by covers" works pretty well for me): Five Things About Ava Andrews (love love love this cover!!); Tune It Out; Bob (Wendy Mass and Rebbecca Stead); the surroundings of The Land of Stories covers; Red, White, and Whole; Finding Junie Kim; Listen, Slowly; The Simple Art of Flying; Orange for the Sunsets; The Midnight Children (I bought this book because of the cover and it is now one of my favorite books ever); Crenshaw; When Clouds Touch Us (haven't read yet, but I've read and loved Inside Out and Back Again)... what are some covers you guys like?

Of course, there are also many good books without awesome covers

2. The Title

When scanning shelves, you can't really see the covers (though I do also use spines), so I look at titles a lot. Titles that catch my attention are usually:

a. unique. Unique titles can be titles that make you think, titles that make you glance again, titles that break the mold, titles that are just... different. Some examples (that are also rly good books): Me and Sam Sam Handle the Apocalypse (doesn't that title just make you go... what? What's happening? What apocalypse? You're gonna "handle" it? Sam Sam? What's up with the grammar?! What is this book about??), Spilling Ink, Fighting Words, Insignificance Events in the Life of a Cactus, The Book of Not Entirely Useful Advice (hah! Love this one!), The Unlikely Story of a Pig in the City, The School for Whatnots, Simon Sort of Says... 

b. beautiful. Titles that just fill you with a sense of awe. Ex (that are also, again, good books): The Simple Art of Flying (Idk why, it just does... I mean, it feels like there's something magical about it), The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise (same here), Shouting in the Rain (there's just something absolutely profound about it, not to mention it's an anagram...), Colors of the Rain (haven't read yet, but that title... what are the colors of the rain? What does that mean?), Wayward Creatures (aren't we all...), The Adventures of a South Pole Pig (haven't read yet, but just sounds so charming and lively), Twilight Hauntings (spooky and enchanting), Sophie Quire and the Last Storyguard (that name just sounds so quaint for some reason)...

c. simply jump out. Idk why. That's what happened to me with Controlled Burn, Blended (Sharon M Draper), The Lost Things Club, Darkbeast, Storybound, The Wishtree...

Some awesome covers (and books) I forgot to mention bc this is all off the top of my head: The Wishtree, The Shape of Thunder...

3. Chapter titles (here I'm just gonna copy and paste from the Funny or just chapter titles you enjoy thread):

(for me, the recipe for a perfect chp is a. Have the chp number, b. Have a funny/thought-provoking title, c. The title adds to the story/gives you a taste of the chapter/summarizes a bit, these chps (talking about Simon Sort of Says) have all that, plus they use "in which", an added bonus. Basically, Rick Riordan mashed up with The Girl Who Drank the Moon, the two (in my opinion) greatest chapters of all time. Another bonus, I like the font and all lowercase of the chapters, they seem perfect for these titles for some reason.) Btw, something I loved from Rick Riordan was that in MCGoA titles, he had a crossover with Hearth and Jason Grace (I think it was "Hearthstone faints even more than Jason Grace (though I have no idea who that is)" or something like that), which was pretty cool!

Which, another cover and title and book I love: The Girl Who Drank the Moon 

4. The Physical Book

yes, I do judge on favorites based on the actual book, also (I seem like a very picky reader, huh? But only for picking favorite favorites, almost all books are my favorites :)). If the book is a hardcover, I like:

a. it to have a dust jacket that's different from the inside cover.

b. for the inside cover to have a cool design on it.

And for all books: 

c. for it to be cool to touch (for example, I love touching Sara and the Search for Normal (great book btw), it's just so... I can't describe it right now, I just like to do it)

d. I love it if the pages have cool edges or easter eggs! For example, I love uncut pages (especially when they match the story, like with Pax (another awesome book)), the look and the feel and the no-papercuts (it's just that they're a bit hard to turn, you have to flip a certain direction)! I also love pages with the edges different colors (like the pages of The Tree of Ecrof (which I remember being pretty good (although it freaked me out a bit, so I've been avoiding it. I owe it a rereading though, haven't read it since 4th grade)), the pages in general are so pretty, like an everlasting watercolor rainbow), or pages gilded with gold (I think it's called, they're just so smooth and shiny) or with a design on them. More than three quarters into The Soul of an Octopus a few days ago, I discovered an EASTER EGG SPOILER DON'T LOOK IF YOU WANT TO FIND IT FOR YOURSELF!! that the octopus in the corner is actually a flipbook! That secured its place in my favorite favorites list.

e. easter eggs in general. I love them. Part of why I like I'm Just No Good at Rhyming and the books from Jason Shiga so much. 

Another cover I love love love: Tidesong (look this cover up along with Ava Andrews, both are absolutely gorgeous!!)

Another book of chapter titles I like: Dusti Bowling (amazing author) just released a new book I think, Dust (haven't read yet). The first chapter title is "Portentous. P-O-R-T-E-N-T-O-U-S. Portentous." Which, as a word lover, I can definitely appreciate, and all of them are like that.

Btw, for chapter titles, I also love if they have a page in the front listing all the titles with their page numbers (like MCGoA does)

And for covers, I like them to have the characters there so I can reference what they look like (tho I do also love imagination also)

and, that's all for now, I'll be back tomorrow. Amazing if you read all this (and thank you too)! Bye and happy reading everybody! 

1.

Honestly? If it's by an author I love, it's in my bag. and I'll read it and usaully love it. Or if an author I recgonise and love comments on the back about it I usually like it.

2.

If the entry thing is funny, has a romantic twist, or fantasy like, I will get it. 

3. 

The cover, if it looks really cool, I will get it. 

-It MUST be clean. No bad language, no inappropriate scenes.

-A bit of romance, whether it's the main focus of the plot or not.

-Strong protagonists. If the main character is having meltdowns or extreme social anxiety or whatever, I won't enjoy the book as much as I would otherwise. I think it's because I have to see the world through the main character's eyes while I'm reading, and I don't want to see it as a place full of causes for anxiety and tension. Oh, and preferably the protagonists should be girls whom I can really identify with, although that's not a must.

-Humor :)

-Interesting, fun characters and beautiful settings that I'd love to see in real life. That's why I love Elizabeth Enright's books...

-It shouldn't go around dividing people up into groups according to what ethnicity they're from. I hate it when the main character says something like, "Well, I'm Black, so of course I can't understand or empathize with white kids, and they can't understand what I go through." As a Mexican American, I can testify that that's nowhere near the experience of people who aren't "white." Nobody is defined by skin color, ever, and I wish authors would realize that.

-It shouldn't be super deep and heavy. Or scary, although some excitement is fine.

-The characters should have a code of ethics and manners that they stick to. It doesn't have to be explicit; it should just be that it's expected that they're going to be ordinary good people.

-Writing that's not just effective, but gorgeous.

1. The summary needs to be appealing. Without it being appealing, I wouldn't have picked up the book in the first place.

2. The first line needs to be either mysterious, captivating, funny, or something like that. A first line determines the flow of the whole story, and if it isn't captivating, I'm more reluctant to read it.

3. Tension and troubles need to be apparent throughout the whole book and mostly resolved in the end. I'm fine if there's a cliffhanger, if it has a series, but not otherwise. And of course, every book needs tension and troubles in order for it to be good.

4. The main character should be relatively strong mentally. If the main character is weak, like Poinsettia said, I probably wouldn't like them as much.

5. Not too much violence. I can handle a little, but not to the point of detailed descriptions of it.

6. Preferrably little to no stereotypes (or division between races and such). Those make a story less appealing to me in general.

7. A little uniqueness to the setting/story/plot will greatly appeal it even more as I can tell it apart from the other stories and remember it easier.

8. Some humor, as every good book (or at least most of them) needs it.

9. Appealing cover art, as I judge the book by its cover, unfortunately, as if the art is unappealing, I'm less likely to get it.

10. Sometimes but not always inspirational book quotes within it that make me think. 

Criteria for a Good Book According to Me, In No Particular Order:

1. It should have a good title and appealing bookspine. Or, if it’s lucky enough to be shelved facing out, a good cover. It will then stand a good chance of being taken off the shelf. 

2. Things by an author I like or have read books by (unless those books are horrid) are usually things I consider worth bringing home. 

3. Long sentences in a hilarious, not annoyingly wordy, way, and places where the author talks to you in their own words (as in, in A Series of Unfortunate Events, all the times where Lemony Snicket tells you to drown, burn up, throw away, return, or just not read the book) are endearing to me. 

4. I like books that are diverse, and especially ones that also have a plot that’s exciting and have diverse characters in them.  

5.  Most books with magic, mysteries, or adventures in are appealing to me. I don’t much like realistic fiction; it’s far too similar to life, which is realistic fact. 

Well, for one, if I can't relate to the characters, to me personally, it's not a good book for me. It's best if I can relate to the main character(s), too. I don't have to be like them in every way, of course, just have to be able to connect. There was this one book I read, Ratchet, which was a struggle to get through as I couldn't really relate to the characters pretty much at all (also it didn't help that I didn't quite know what a ratchet was...). Also same with Hatchet, I didn't relate to the character. But there were other reasons why I didn't like Hatchet, and other books. For example, boring. It should be deatialed enough that I feel like I'm in the story, but not too deatialed that it just stretches the story out way too much and makes it not exciting. Also the writing style. I prefer books that are funny, snarky, and/or entertaining. Also, when the characters are around my age it helps. Oh, at camp I wrote a full page with nine reasons why I love reading. I'll show y'all that later, I gtg. 

To me, what makes a good book is when you are finished with it and you are so sad, and you reallly want to read more (but there's none) that you start crying. Ok, maybe I only do this (?)