How Do Instructors Choose Books?

Two weeks ago a textbook rep, vigorously working on ways to increase her sales commissions, called my office and asked if I had already made my decision for adopting titles for the Fall Semester. I politely told her that I had and that usually I didn't select textbooks, upon which she said, with a trace of smug condescension, "So you're more of a nontraditionalist."  I let the comment go but later thought about her response and it occurred to me that small minds with little  or no imagination like to rely on labels to characterize those who act outside the mainstream. Her comment, belying her small-mindedness,  is completely inaccurate. In truth, I don't care if the books I adopt for the classes I teach are "traditional" or "nontraditional." What I care about is having a fire in my belly to teach the books. I care about passion and a spark of imagination. Most textbooks, but not all, are pretty much the same, just reshuffled decks of cards and they have the effect of deadening and numbing both my mind and the students'. But there are some good textbooks out there that I use from time to time. Nabokov said that great books create "tingles up the spine." If there isn't that gut response in a book, that fire in the belly, then I have no interest in it. So there. Forgive me if I've been pompous, sanctimonious, and self-aggrandizing, but I felt compelled to rebuke the textbook rep who called me a "nontraditionalist."