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I think most of us have similar preferences. I tend to judge more by a blurb with some sort of synopsis of the plot rather than the cover. Having said that, if I see a generic romance cover with the heavily muscled man I won't even get to that stage. Romance is not a genre I often read, though I'm open to doing so if a book was to sufficiently catch my attention or be recommended by someone I take notice of. The last romance I read was some years ago on the recommendation of a friend who thought the book was extraordinary. It was very well out of my comfort zone but I will confess to enjoying it a lot. It was something I would never have imagined myself bothering with, which would have been my loss. I won't comment on it any further, but the book was "About a Girl" by Joanne Horniman, and the romance was a lesbian one.
My reading now tends to be mostly in 3 or 4 genres with the odd non-fiction or literary title thrown in. Like many of us here who love reading I have read most of the classics, in my case mostly in my teens and twenties, though I do like to re-read books I have enjoyed periodically. Up until relatively recently I always finished any book I started, but now take the view that life is too short and the good books too plentiful to waste time on something I am not enjoying. There are probably now 7 or 8 such books which I have abandoned at various stages. I find a lot of literary fiction these days pretentious and over-rated. Not all, but enough for me to mostly avoid the genre unless I have particular reason to believe I will enjoy the book. In particular I like my books to have more than flowery descriptions and torturous character development. In fact, I like my books to have an actual substantial plot.
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