If Seanan McGuire recommends it (or someone on Squeecast does), it usually means it's far enough up my alley to give it a shot. Ditto Alasdair Stuart of Pseudopod. Other than that, if friends recommend stuff, I'll try to read it, depending on which friend and how much they are fanning about it (this applies to tv/music as well) - for example, I got into Pat Rothfuss's work because a friend of mine had him as a professor and she simply would not stop squeeing about how brilliant he was, so I managed to find a copy of his first book to see what all the fuss was about. And I promptly got hooked.
Given that my free-reading time has decreased as my time devoted to academic research has skyrocketed, I have to be really picky about what I read because I simply don't have enough time to read all the stuff I want to AND get my research done. It's a shame, because a lot of the authors I like are putting out a ton of stuff, and I keep encountering new people to like. Really grooving on Zen Cho and Malinda Lo and Seanan McGuire and Mary Robinette Kowal right now.
Also, Mark Oshiro's Mark Reads blog is a nice way to not only discover new stuff, but his commentary is really interesting. Highly recommended!
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Date: 2013-12-22 10:34 am (UTC)Given that my free-reading time has decreased as my time devoted to academic research has skyrocketed, I have to be really picky about what I read because I simply don't have enough time to read all the stuff I want to AND get my research done. It's a shame, because a lot of the authors I like are putting out a ton of stuff, and I keep encountering new people to like. Really grooving on Zen Cho and Malinda Lo and Seanan McGuire and Mary Robinette Kowal right now.
Also, Mark Oshiro's Mark Reads blog is a nice way to not only discover new stuff, but his commentary is really interesting. Highly recommended!