Also you can try this, if you want to focus on same text after error.
If you wants to show this error message in a paragraph then you can use this one:
$(document).ready(function () {
$("#submit").click(function () {
if($('#selBooks').val() === '') {
$("#Paragraph_id").text("Please select a book and then proceed.").show();
$('#selBooks').focus();
return false;
}
});
});