[k2enemy]

> I'm probably never going to read again, because I have absolutely no metric, however bad any more, for guessing about the quality of a the book.

Really? This might be the laziest thing I've read on HN. 30 seconds of Googling (DuckDuckGoing?)

https://www.thehugoawards.org/hugo-history/

https://nebulas.sfwa.org

https://www.sfadb.com

https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/books/g39358054/best-s... (and tons of other lists like this)

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/19341.Best_Science_Ficti... (etc...)

Yes, searching on Amazon might not be the best discovery method anymore, but there are also institutions that curate.

[rendaw]

I've read a number of books from those lists in the past and they're not really what I'm looking for, and a lot of the books I really enjoyed are not in the circles those lists select from.

But I guess more to the point in the past I've grabbed books with interesting covers or titles off the shelves at a library and enjoyed them, and I don't feel confident in that method working today. Or at least, I feel like there was a time when the rankings on Amazon were probably a lot closer to what you'd see in libraries.

[wincy]

Ah yes, the Hugo award, known for such quality and revered works like “Space Raptor Butt Invasion” by Chuck Tingle.

How can I trust any award as a standard of quality that has ridiculous stuff like that getting nominated?

[Philpax]

Nominations aren't awards...?