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Just recently, I decided to start reading again for entertainment, and was trying to find books that I'd find engaging and interesting. I was forced to study a lot of contrived literature and cinema in the past, and have really come to loathe writing that takes itself too seriously.
Despite my common sense, I went through some reviews on Amazon and dug up Ken Follett's "Pillars of the Earth", which apparently has gotten a lot of good press. I found it locally (in Taiwan) and thought I'd be able to enjoy it.
After the first hundred pages, I decided I didn't want to bother with it anymore. Shortly thereafter, I dug up some of the discussion of it in other places and of course the negative reviews and discovered that hidden in all the blind admiration (some legitimate admiration too I'm sure, but mostly that for Oprah's book club I suspect), there were a lot of dissatisfied readers. Guess I can count myself among them.
I now tend to actually read the 5-star reviews and avoid anything that gets promoted on certain qualities, and then read the 1- and 2-star reviews to see the iconoclast perspective. I'll avoid books that get 5 stars for anything related to "the complete spectrum of human emotion and experience" or "the ability to speak directly to the heart and soul".
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