How do you guys reliably find books that you end up enjoying?

I have this problem where most of the books I read, I don't end up enjoying. My success rate is usually something like one out of every four or five books I read. This is not because I have some sort of superior taste in literature, by the way. It's not even because I have a particular taste in what stories I indulge in. With movies and TV-shows, I can enjoy almost 80% of what you throw at me, but with novels? Nuh-uh.

I don't know what it is about books, but for some reason, I can't reliably find ones that I enjoy. What do you guys do about this?

 

I've had a lot more trouble enjoying reading since I started writing, for sure. It's hard to turn my writer-brain off and just sink into the story.

Generally when I do find a book I enjoy, I glom onto the author and read everything available right up until I'm so sick of it that I give up. Pretty mature approach, huh?

 

I usually read books by the authors I love. Then, fans of that author will also suggest other great authors with similar genre, style. etc.

 

If I love one book I - confession time - read reviews on Amazon or related sites, because sometimes reviewers drop titles which they find comparable. I usually check these out. I also browse through 'Suggested' or just book lists by genre. Trial and error you might say. Only very, very rarely do I stumble over the odd one out.

As far as fantasy/scifi goes, I browse the 'Look inside the book' and can decide pretty quickly if the book is for me or not. Usually it isn't (especially since I started sharpening my writing skills). All these errors stand out in neon-colour and I get discouraged very quickly from buying. But as long as I stick to my preferred genre I am fortunate in that I usually 'enjoy' quite a lot.

 

I like to find author interviews for authors I like. It's pretty standard that one of the questions in the interview has something to do with what the author has read lately. I've found some great reads that way.

 

I don't, necessarily. I buy lots of random books, from authors I have never heard of, so all I have to go on is what the cover looks like and where it is shelved. I don't read blurbs. Found a number I didn't care for this way, but also some really good ones I might not otherwise have bought.

 

Lots and lots and lots and lots of library checkouts.

 

I read a lot of murder mysteries, which has the advantage of being a genre that has a lot of multi-work authors. So I'm usually reading through everything written by an author that I already like. Then I sample other authors, with a preference for ones that have written a lot of books, and I'd say that your one out of four or five statistic matches how many I have to sample to find a new author. Then I read through everything they've written, and start again. And of course there's always the occasional new book by an author that I already like.

And I re-read books, even murder mysteries.

 

I read as many reviews as I can in newspapers and magazines. These are written by professional reviewers, so they usually give a good flavour of what to expect—and they are just as apt to be negative (albeit courteous) as they are positive. However, they tend to focus more on what the book contains than their opinion of it. Of course this only works for new books.

I have also been introduced to many good authors at the Ullapool Book Festival, which has a different lineup every year. This pushes me outside my comfort zone. I always try to read at least one book from every author who is featured, and the worst I can say about any of them is simply that they are not my cup of tea. However, they are all first-class authors. You could do worse than attend some book festivals. You get to hear the authors reading from their latest books, and get a notion of what they are like as people, too.

I agree with the OP, though. I often end up reading books that are just 'meh,' if I pick them sight unseen. They're okay, but no great shakes. You can get a flavour of the writing style from the Look Inside feature on Amazon, but what you can't get is how good the story will be, or whether you'll end up feeling let down at the end. Mind you, I'm old fashioned in my taste, and the kind of fiction I enjoy reading isn't being produced much any more. Most of my reading these days is nonfiction, which carries a different kind of criteria, and I enjoy lots of them. But fiction? Not so much. I've honestly enjoyed some of the beta reads I've done for other forum members much more than some of the published books I've read of late.

 

I have the exact same problem as the OP. Just thinking through how I've found the books/authors I love most, it's tended to be from references in song lyrics, TV shows and non-fiction. I suppose that's not a reliable way of finding books you like - you've got to wait for them to show up so it's more serenditpity than anything else - but often I'll track down a book just wanting to understand a song or a person better, and find out that I love that book more than the original source.

 

I have found some of the best reads simply by taking a chance. I like to play this game at a library or bookstore to help me choose a book. I will close my eyes and run my fingers along the books. Then I will randomly stop on a book. Whatever book my finger lands on, I will read.

 

Oh, also. I love literary podcasts. I have purchased a few books after hearing a review over a podcast.

 

I'm lucky in that regard because my reading genre is very defined. My friends are mostly people who share my reading and musical interests so we share new findings. It rarely fails.

 

Attending book fairs can help. You can find many books and actually look inside the printed editions. I also think, as others have pointed out, that it's very difficult to know if you will enjoy the story. But, at least you get a pretty good taste of the writing style.

 

I was a precocious kid who read YA fiction on teacher recommendations at a fairly young age, then kept re-reading old favorites through high school and even college and found myself an adult who had no idea what kind of adult fiction she liked. I did this in part because re-reading old favorites was far easier than trying to figure out what adult fiction I liked. I then had a hell of a time figuring out what I liked. Looking into what was popular at the library or on Amazon did nothing for me; I finally ended up figuring out what I liked by talking to people who had enjoyed the same books as I had growing up and getting recommendations for adult fiction from them. So my advice would be to find other people who share your tastes and see what they like that you haven't read.

 

The only way I can be sure I'll enjoy a book is to reread one I've already enjoyed. Any other approach is, for me, a crap-shoot.

 

Echoing other posters, the most reliable way I have is to buy from authors I like. This isn't foolproof--Dean Koontz, for example, is really hit and miss for me. I love most of his books but a few I've found really disappointing (I don't think he plans his endings so they can end up as damp squibs).

I use Amazon and Audible's 'recommended for you' features, which is more hit and miss. I read the blurb, check the publisher, maybe scan a few reviews.

Most of the time I end up browsing in genre categories and looking at books with good covers. That's most hit and miss of all, but Kindle Unlimited makes it easier; no financial loss if I borrow a KU book and don't like it.

 

I've been using NPR's book concierge lately, reading the reviews on the site, then checking out the Look Inside feature on Amazon.

The last six books I've read were from this site, and I truly enjoyed five of those six.

http://apps.npr.org/best-books-2016/

 

As of late, I have not found anything that would blow your socks off
spectacular. Granted I don't mind looking at the lesser known authors
to see what kind of potential is out there. The look inside feature is a
big plus, but can at times be misleading. Seems there are a lot of
authors who start out strong and finish on a disappointing note.
Almost as if you make it past the point of no return and are hooked
in the whole thing starts to unravel like a cheap suit. Granted there
have been exceptions where the effort was made to tell a compelling
story in varying degrees.

Sad to say that there is a lot of hook line and sinkers out there,
that only do just enough to get you to part with your money
only to end up feeling less than amused.

 

That's happened to me with like fifty percent of the books I've read this year. They start out so great and then slowly turn into generic stories that leave me no reason to keep reading.

 

I have sadly found myself immersed in one specific genre, and it's fine. I'm okay with that. I've been trying to branch out slowly, because a big shock would make me draw myself back in. I look up stuff on Wattpad and try new things that kids like me write.

 

Start 10, read 5. Lately I've been searching the library catalogue by genre and starting with books that are in my local library as opposed to having to wait for them. I've found all kinds of great stuff and find myself more and more reading books I didn't think I'd like but did. If the writing is good, the book will suck me in.

 

I google "best books about ..." and see what people said they did and didn't like about certain stories, then decide if I think I'll like them too

TVTropes is also helpful. Most "You Might Like..." recommendations (Amazon, GoodReads) are based on 3 rather generic criteria: number ratings, maybe a dozen or so subheadings like themes and genres, and whether other people who liked a certain book also liked this one. TVTropes goes into far more detail: they have over 27,000 individual pages for different tropes that can show up in a story (types of plots, types of characters, types of settings, types of conflicts, types of genre, subtypes about any or all of the above...), each with multiple examples of stories that used each particular trope; they have almost 60,000 individual pages for different works (films, novels, comic books...), each with multiple examples of tropes that were used in each work; and they are set up to make hours of Wiki Walking easy.

Spoiler: Using my own work as an example

Let's pretend that you liked the Doctor Who fanfiction in my signature, so you look at the TVTropes page I made for listing some tropes from the story (like "Sapient Ship" or "Guns Akimbo").

You decide that your favorite part of my story was my exploration of the morality of vigilante serial murder, so when you see the "Serial Killer Killer" trope listed, you click on the link for the page specifically about that trope. Now you scroll through the list of stories that use a Serial Killer Killer character (like Death Note or The Punisher), and you click the link for the page about the Dexter novels. You scroll through the list of tropes that were used in the Dexter books (like "Purple Prose" or "Status Quo is God"), and you learn about the "First-Person Smartass" narrator for the first time. You've never seen a narrator described as a First-Person Smartass before, but it sounds interesting, so you click the link for the page about the "First-Person Smartass." You realize that the description is more straight-forward than you were expecting, but you still want to read stories with first-person narrators who make sarcastic judgements about what's happening instead of telling it straight, so you scroll through the list (like Odd Thomas or Percy Jackson and the Olympians) and see Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files novels...

Or maybe your favorite part about my fanfiction was the pop culture references that my characters dropped – Dark Knight, Firefly, Pirates of the Caribbean, and a spy-flick series that only exists in the future – and you want to read about other action heroes/villains who enjoy pop culture, so you click the page for "Pop-Cultured Badass." Now you scroll through the list of stories that use a Pop-Cultured Badass character (like Spider-Man or The A-Team), and you see Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files novels again.

Now you have a story that you've never read before (The Dresden Files) but two different story elements that you like (the main character is a First-Person Smartass narrator and a Pop-Cultured Badass.

 

My success rate is lower than this.

I have no idea what's wrong with me.