For me it comes down to trust: if I trust that the author will deliver on a good book (by recommendations, by its reputation in a community, etc.) I will not gi

For me it comes down to trust: if I trust that the author will deliver on a good book (by recommendations, by its reputation in a community, etc.) I will not give up so easily on it. But if I have no reason to trust, why should I waste my time? I agree with you that we should generally give authors a chance and I would also have missed out on some great books if I would not have kept going. But I am also a very slow reader and therefore have to be very selective. So I rely a lot on opinions from reviewers and other readers to give me a hint that the text might grow on me, otherwise I cannot possibly give any book the chance it may deserve; there are just too many other great books that I would never get to read at all.