[darryl]

@Katsunami. What your difficulty seems to be is not quality but choice and affordability. The Internet has given us both, but we are ill-equipped to select from such a large variety of options. Helping us with this task is big business, which is why we see so much discussion about "discovery". And, as the excellent post above by cfrizz points out, "the importance of the book is subjective to each individual". And we all have different tastes. I place little importance on reviews because of this. And these days I read only for enjoyment. If I am really not enjoying a book, which happens only rarely, I abandon it and move on to something else.

The only difference now with self-published books is that there are now some books which are truly appalling. However, these are usually easy to cull by many means, probably the best of which is to have a read of the usually extensive sample made available. Stop worrying about what you should be reading, and concentrate on picking books you are likely to enjoy rather than books that others say are important. Prioritise what you want to read first. After all, you can't read them all at once, as much as you might like to. And if you are not enjoying a book, abandon it and move on. But don't abandon a book because you think for some reason it is more important to be reading something else.

And if you still feel your reading experience was better before self-publishing, abandon ebooks. Pretend they don't exist and go to your local bookshop just the way you used to do.

But today is a wonderful time for readers. Please try to adapt and make the most of it.

EDIT: By the way, I would be interested in hearing what your favourite book or books are? The book or books that you have enjoyed reading most. Personally, I have many. For myself, off the top of my head Ken Kesey's One Flow over the Cuckoo's Nest and Orson Scott Card's Speaker for the Dead come to mind as examples. There are of course others.