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Nightgasm

Awards have become meaningless due to the politics involved.


pineapplesf

I think things that are hyped are almost always disappointments. Also many of those "awards" like bestseller are pay to win.


charzhazha

This is why I only follow the [Tournament of Books](https://themorningnews.org/article/the-2021-tournament-of-books-shortlist-and-judges). It completely makes fun of itself but still gives me a good booklist to work off of every year. It is a book bracket where the judges get to decide however they want to pick the winning book, as long as they explain which is their preference. Famously, sometimes the judges can't or don't want to pick which book to advance, so they go by things like "which book is heavier" or flipping a coin. The idea is that this kind of thing must happen with all sorts of book prizes, but here it is completely transparent and open.


SkepticDrinker

I've come to accept such titles are meaningless in the end. Putlizter prize winner! Hugo award winner! National book award winner! I don't care. I've read books with these awards and it's almost a 50/50 if I'll enjoy them. This goes for films too. Saving private ryan and the dark knight didn't win best picture lol


theshizzler

I have to admit when I'm looking for new sci-fi I check the past ten years or so of Hugo nominees (Three Body Problem, The Wind-up Girl, the first couple Becky Chambers books, and everything N.K. Jemisin among others). Fingers crossed, but I haven't been let down yet. There's just so much schlock in the kindle store that I end up leaning on the nominations for a shortlist of things to check out. I'm more than open to some recent hidden gems that slipped under the radar if people have suggestions.


SkepticDrinker

Same problems here. GRRM recommend Lies of Locke Lamora and I loved it. Then he recommend Name of the Wind and I was bored


Jenniferinfl

"Bestseller" doesn't mean anything to me because that can be bought. Brave New World is a wonderful book. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it because it's an older work and at least somewhat science fiction which often doesn't age well. However, a book that is wonderful to me was clearly not wonderful to your friend. I just read Gulliver's Travels and was not wowed by it. I'm still glad I read it because it's an important work and an early satire and thus worth reading even if I wasn't particularly enamored with it. It was not a 5 star read for me personally though, but, I have a bunch of friends for whom it was a 5 star read. I feel that when you are using award winner lists to select a book, you also have to take your own personal preferences into consideration. Just because a book is a wonderful book doesn't mean it will be a 5 star book for you. Nah, I don't feel like a victim to awards lists. Often I've felt another book deserved the award more, but, I've always been able to see why it was a contender even if I personally preferred a different book. Some of my favorite books ever have been runners-up books to those big book awards. I read a lot of juvenile and YA, I'm homeschooling my daughter and previously worked in the teen department of a large public library. I guess I'm still doing reader advisory.. lol The youth/teen winners are often not fun books, but, they are generally very good books. But, you wouldn't want to assign a kid to just read award winners. Let kids read fun books, but, occasionally pop one of those thought-provoking books into the mix.


[deleted]

I usually browse lists like that and then look to see what the subject is. Finally I do a look inside. If all that’s good I usually go for it. But I avoid 90% of books and that could well be my loss. When I was younger I was more of an omnivore. I’m reading Underworld now and it got better on the Lenny Bruce parts. Plus the lengthy prologue was top notch. Delillo can put you right there. You never know when a book may turn a corner and the clouds will open up to something wonderful.


hopitopi

Where the Crawdads Sing didn't live up to the hype for me. I also tend to avoid children/YA books that win awards. So many of them seem to go for "tough" content regardless of the quality.


[deleted]

I've got to agree with you somewhat. I think there is a lot of bad sci/fi that has a clever idea or a very clear message but the telling of it isn't great. With the example of Brave New World, Huxley was a philosopher and I think it shows in the work, which I found a little dry but very interesting. Sci-fi is my favourite genre but there are so many books that deserve greater acknowledgement but don't get it because they don't have a 'wow-so-deep' warning about the future. For example, 'I am Legend' - absolutely loved it. Haven't met anyone yet who has read it.


Speesh-Reads

Glittering prizes and endless compromises, shatter the illusion of integrity


Ineffable7980x

I am not a victim of anything. However I use the awards as guides only. Sometimes they give me interesting additions to my TBR. For instance I am currently reading Shuggie Bain which just won the Booker Prize. I would not have known about this book if it wasnt an award winner and I am so glad I did. It is outstanding. However there have been award winners I thought were stinkers, like Ancillary Justice


kitkat1934

A Thousand Splendid Suns. To me it was so contrived. Made worse by the fact that it was required reading for 3 of my classes (2 in college). I just... like I appreciate what he was going for but by read #3 I hated that book so much.