The Evolution of Science Fiction discussion

When looking for a new book to read, are there any recommendation organizations or people you trust? Hugo awards? NYTimes? Goodreads ratings? A popular reviewer?

I read reviews on goodreads, especially the negative reviews. As for the ratings-I don't trust them at all.
The same goes for award winning books-sometimes I wonder how they're chosen.
I've learned more about which books to read next on various group discussions on goodreads, including this group.

For me, it crucially depends on a kind of book. What I mean is that I read SFF these days mostly in Goodreads groups- monthly reads, buddy reads. Exceptions are SFF in Polish - there I read chiefly award-nominated works (usually from the previous year, because I take part in voting for the Polish Hugo equivalent) — and in Ukrainian I read local authors available in e-books (my parents over their lives collected like several thousand volumes and now I am unable even to give them to libraries, because 90%+ are in russian, because it was the main language for interesting books during the Soviet times, but libraries after 2022 don't take Russian-language books, a decision I actually support). For non-fic it is 50/50 group reads and reading on topics that currently interest me.

I'm probably not the best person to ask about this because I try to maintain a focus on the Hugo & Nebula nominees, a limited list. But I can say that being in these affiliated GR groups exposed me to people with much broader tastes and knowledge. Before that, I was pretty much on my own. Not everything the groups read or recommend matches my taste, but I can generally trust the other members' opinions. I do read reviews on GR and WWE, but they rarely tip the scales.

I don't trust anyone under 50.

I’d like to read more new books, but when it comes to finding a “new book to read” I have problems.

I don’t know what to do for nongenre fiction. I’ve concluded that the nongenre New York Times reviews don’t work for me. Sometimes I just browse physical bookstore or library shelves and pick up something recent.

In the genre world, the SFF genre has been changing, and a lot of the award nominees and genre books with buzz don’t appeal to me much. I subscribe to Locus, and look at the reviews of new fiction, and sometimes I see something interesting and take a chance. I think Gary K. Wolfe is good at describing books accurately. I do pay attention to the opinions of the folks in these Goodreads groups I frequent, and certain Goodreads reviewers I follow. I agree with Rosemarie though, the actual ratings don’t mean much.

Luckily there are a lot of old books I haven’t read.

for SF, I follow our monthly reads and nominations and check out some other groups here on GR, nominations and especially 'what else are you reading' is very useful. And sometimes I random pick something out of my own collection. Lots and lots available.
For non SF I recognise what Stephen says. I do check some awards. I don't follow reviewers. My newspaper has lots of reviews though, from which I can pretty easily recognise books that appeal to me, that turns out ok almost every time. The same with what I find in little libraries. There are about 10 of them in my neighbourhood that I pass regularly on my bike. Problem is that I bring more home than I can read so it's piling up :-)

Ed wrote: "I don't trust anyone under 50."

You know it used to be "over 30", right? Somehow it switched!

Non-SF&F, I'm usually reading history, mostly military, or some variation of true crime. I'm with Stephen & Leo on finding those, often library or store bookshelves, with the occasional GR popup recommendation or group member reading it. But I'm pretty picky on those.

I do look at various award nominations to give me a general start. I do read reviews and see if they are both well done and honest sounding. I tend not to pay attention to the New York Time review only because I tend not to read those books reviewed in general. As for ratings, If there are something along the like of lots of thousands, then maybe i will look because after a large number of ratings, the curves tends to even out to a more normalized skew.

I like to look at trustworthy reviews to decide what to read. By trustworthy I mean they like books I have liked or I've liked books they have recommended.
The interesting thing about this thread is so many of you have lots of reading experience so you have a good sense of what you enjoy reading!

Natalie wrote: "I like to look at trustworthy reviews to decide what to read. By trustworthy I mean they like books I have liked or I've liked books they have recommended..."

I have to say that there's two types of reviews that I don't consider trustworthy and refuse to read:
1) where they tell half the story before they get to their opinions, making the review exceedingly long
2) where they just summarize the story and point you to their blog for the full review