How do you find the books worth reading?

[ForsCream]

By goodreads?
NY-Times best-seller rank?

I always feel anxiety about if the book I am reading is a waste of time.

So how do you find the nice books which worth reading?

[HarryT]

Moved to the "Reading Recommendations" forum.

[JohnRR]

I will read the first 10% to determine if I like it. If yes, I continue to read the whole book. If no, I will skip it. There are too many books in this world. I won't continue to read a book if I don't enjoy it.

[Apache]

If I enjoy the book, I consider it a good and enjoyable read. If I enjoy doing something it is not a waste of time.
I find books in many different ways. Some are books I have read before that are finally being released as eBooks. I also peruse sites like Amazon and B&N looking for books I might find interesting. I look for new releases by authors who's books I have enjoyed before. I even still walk into book stores to see what is available, although I do not do this as much as I used to. I find most book stores to be transitioning to sellers of things other than books.
Apache

[jbcohen]

Typically I have a group of authors that I have liked in the past that I tend to stay loyal to: Clive Cussler (approximatly eleven left so I will be working on these for a while), Terry Goodkind (I am current with his books). To find new authors I think that I will try the simila rauthors listings in goodreads.

[bfisher]

I often find interesting books in the threads here.

[orlok]

This is a nice little feature, which allows you to select a book you enjoyed, and it will recommend other titles that you might also enjoy.

Here's the full url for those that don't like clicking embedded links:

Spoiler:

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2TRXnp

[HarryT]

I use various means:

Favourite authors: there are certain authors that I know I enjoy, and I'll buy anything they publish. Eg Peter Robinson in the crime genre, and Stephen Baxter in SF.

Favourite publishers: I buy all Baen's monthly bundles, because I know that I'll enjoy the overwhelming majority of what they publish.

Recommendations: I buy a lot of books based on recommendations I see here at MR. Eg I'm currently reading (and very much enjoying) Andy Weir's "The Martian" after seeing recommendations for it here.

Deals: Amazon often have great deals that are hard to resist.

[tm3]

Browse old threads here going back a few years, look for recommendations based on genres or authors that you already like.

[Gazella]

Recommendations here or from friends. Browsing the books at Amazon.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by ForsCream

I always feel anxiety about if the book I am reading is a waste of time.

So how do you find the nice books which worth reading?

By accepting the fact that I'm not going to be head over heels in love with every single book I read. I don't stress over picking only winners. There's no prize for the highest batting average in reading. I'm going to whiff. The world doesn't end when I do.

[jscarbo]

How readers "discover" new books and authors is one of the hottest topics in the publishing industry. I buy mostly from Amazon and browse their bestseller lists every few days sorted by genres I'm interested in. If I find a book that I think I might be interested in, I read the reviews and click "look inside" to read a few pages.

In addition, I subscribe to the Bookbub email service and find quite a few books through their recommendations. I also find many books through recommendations here and on the Amazon customer forums.

[Catlady]

I am finding that I use Amazon recommendations based on my past purchases more than I used to. While most of them are useless, every now and then one catches my eye and the book description will sound interesting. I've found a few new-to-me authors this way.

I haven't had much luck with the sites that say "if you like X, try Y." Usually the authors that come up for me are ones I am already familiar with, or else ones that don't really seem to fit my taste (based on synopses of their books).

I don't know the last time I found myself stuck with a real clunker. Sometimes the books aren't as good as I hoped from a synopsis, but usually I enjoy them well enough.

[Penforhire]

I get new authors to try from here more than through most other sources. I found a few through the "literature map" project, typing in a favorite and browsing some of the claimed-to-be-similar authors.

My most reliable sources are the published winners and nominees for industry awards (Nebula, Hugo, Stoker, Edgar, etcetera). I like a high percentage of those authors I try. You'll have an overflowing list just by looking over a few years worth of those.

[Namekuseijin]

I stumble upon them