4 ms·
My opinion of China has not changed because my mental model already included it insisting on self-censorship from anyone who wants to do business there. I alre
by karaterobot 3y ago
My opinion of China has not changed because my mental model already included it insisting on self-censorship from anyone who wants to do business there.
I already don't buy books because they win or fail to win Hugo awards. I bet some people do, so this is marginally worse for them, because they're trusting someone else to curate books for them and now they might miss out. I guess the lesson is not to depend on which works of art (or of entertainment) get recognized for awards.
For the authors who may have missed out on a Hugo award and whatever money a Hugo nomination or award brings (probably non-zero bump in sales) I guess I'm sorry. But they'll be fine, and this kerfuffle might even bring more attention to than a nomination would have: "would this book have won a Hugo?"
- theragra 3y agoBut how do you choose books if they are not curated somehow? Read all of them? This sentence does not make sense to me. You always choose based on some curation: reviews, word of mounth, cover blurbs etc etc
- EGG_CREAM 3y agoI have the same question. Goodreads has the same politics problem, plus the rotten tomatoes issue where authors seem to get punished for taking risks or not sticking rigidly to genre. I don’t know where to go for recommendations.
- corimaith 3y agoTry /lit/. As with most places in 4chan, don't take things too seriously but the people in those hobby boards do genuinely care about their respective hobby.
- EGG_CREAM 3y agoThanks so much, I’ll give it a look!
- NegativeLatency 3y agoBeen using storygraph with my friends and it much better for finding new stuff to read in my opinion
- corimaith 3y agoOnce you have your preferences settled, the number of new and upcoming works that falls into the right categories is actually quite small that could individually read the blurb and pick what's interesting. Other than that you could also just go through your local gallery and pick the interesting stuff. The only "curation" is between the author and reader's own preference. Beyond that I guess you can pick from authors with good reputations, specific genre enthusiast communities and friends. But awards show aren't good because the need to appeal to entire community means that what gets picked usually will appeal to the lowest common denominator.
- beezlebroxxxxxx 3y agoSometimes you just have to risk it. This is the old way people picked out books. Look at the cover, read the back, flip through the pages or a sample if available, then tell themselves "huh, this looks good." Then you hope it's good. Usually you don't get stung with real stinkers but it can happen. Once you read enough you'll get a 6th sense for books you might enjoy. I can usually with a quick scan of the prose style and the back of the book blurb tell if something seems interesting or not