Does anyone know why they won't release full books on the web? Seems like the demand would be strong.
"Why can't I view more pages from a specific book?
We help our customers discover and sample books to ensure that they'll be satisfied with their purchases. Our agreements with publishers and copyright holders currently limit how much of the book is available for preview. We continue to work with publishers to expand these limits."
On the other hand, while it is hard to judge a book by it's cover, it's not so crazy to judge it from a few paragraphs: if it's a funny book, you can usually tell right away if it's your genre of irony, and if it's fantasy you can see easily if it's all smeerps and naked heroins dressed in leather and so on.
Some things do grow on you during reading, but if you can't stand a pompous verbose style (or a crude bare one) you can avoid starting reading something you won't ever even finish.
But, obviously, all of this is IMO.