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Originally Posted by HarryT
Interesting question.
These days, I tend to be fairly selective in my reading, and stick with authors I know I like - simply because I have far more books to read than I have time to read them in.
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Same here, on time vs books, but I don't stick only to folks whose stuff I know I like. Of course, my fiction reading is skewed to SF/fantasy, so the question there tends to be "Which of my friends has a new book out?" (I've been involved in organized SF fan activities for many years, and know a lot of the folks in the field.)
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The main exception to that is the Baen "Webscriptions" stuff, where I buy everything they publish. I've discovered a lot of authors I wouldn't have otherwise come across that way.
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I've discovered some authors I like via the Baen Free Library, but I'm not a candidate for
everything Webscriptions offers. I like Baen's SF, but I'm less enthused by their fantasy offerings.
I sometimes buy books by authors unfamiliar to me simply because Tor published them, and I've learned to trust their taste. Baen is probably the best at mid-level action/adventure, but while I like that, I have broader overall tastes.
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I don't personally use reviews to select books, because, as I said above, I have no way of knowing whether the reviewer's tastes have anything in common with mine.
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In my case, that's earned through familiarity. I've simply read enough of some reviewers to get a feel for their taste. (And I don't understand how some reviewers do it, like Don D'Ammassa, the long time reviewer for Locus. I don't think he
quite gets and reviews
everything, but he comes close.)
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Dennis