this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2023
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Science Fiction

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Lemmy World Rules

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What criteria do you use to determine whether a book is worth your time? (lemm.ee)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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It is not possible to read all the Sci-Fi books out there. So you must have a process for selecting what you do read. Reading a book is an investment in your time. Your time is valuable. No one wants to waste that time reading unworthy books.

I have never codified my criteria. And it has changed and evolved over time. I suspect it will continue to change moving forward, as who I am tomorrow is not who I was yesterday.

What is your criteria to date?

Mine is that it must meet ALL the following criteria, some objective and some subjective.

  • it must have at least 1,000 reviews
  • it must have at least 70% 5-star reviews
  • if after reading about it I get the suspicion that it's a romance disguised as Sci-Fi, I automatically reject it no matter what
  • if it's YA, it really needs to be exceedingly compelling to choose it
  • Space Opera also needs to be exceedingly compelling
  • if I get the feeling it's trying to preach I'll reject it
  • if i get the feeling it has (messaging, strong opinions, or political overtones) about today's societal issues, I probably won't choose it. Not judging; I primarily read for escapism.

I guess that's about it. There's probably more but I just haven't put that much thought into it yet.

I'm very interested in how y'all decide to choose a book to spend your valuable time reading.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That is quite a restrictive list.

I generally go for:

Is it by an author I like? Is it well written? (Judging by samples).

Then I start to read. Normally I will make it to the end, even if some way in I decide I don’t like it that much. Sometimes I will just give up, if it is too tedious, or too many characters/plots I can’t keep track of, or it turns out to be badly written after all.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Too restrictive? Yes maybe so. There are always exceptions which I haven't verbalized in my post.

Nevertheless, I fear if I used your method, in total I'd spend years reading samples. It's good it works for you though.

I read so much, I just don't have time to invest in reading samples.

UPDATE: I've been wondering why the down votes. I suspect there is tone in my response which I did not intend. I get a lot of recommendations I want to weed through to find something I'm interested in. I couldn't possibly read all the samples. That's all I'm saying.