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.
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.
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.