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It sounds like you want a guarantee that you'll like a book before you spend time reading it, and it just doesn't work that way. Spending hours trying to invest yourself in a book just to realise it's garbage is part of the hobby. Reading what others say about it can be helpful, but at some point you have to take a leap of faith that this is something you're gonna like.

Ask the staff at the bookstore. My favorite bookstore near me has a staff recommendation shelf and I've quickly learned I have similar tastes with some of the staff there so when they recommend a book that sounds interesting, it usually is.

If you don't have something like that then definitely find some community that can perform the same duty. A book club, a friend, an online community, etc. Community is the answer to everything

I look for threads on hexbear asking for book recommendations (fiction and non) and add them to my list. If I like something, I'll usually expand into the rest of the author's works. I build up a decent backlog that way. I still delve into the lib slop mines from time to time, but that's usually for smut.

I usually stick with authors I've already found I enjoy in the past, highly regarded classical books, or get recommendations from people that know my taste (friends, fam) or a couple critics I usually agree with. There are also some genres like biography or dramatized history I tend to avoid because I know I get bored of those easily.

Use your local public library to read books for free.

This is what book reviews and reviewers are for. There are a couple of socialist/ progressive reviewers online.

Find a reviewer who not only likes the books you like, but whose assessment of the books vibes with you (you don't have to agree with them, but it's helpful to notice they're looking for the same thing as you are).

Print or established media is better for this than social media, because the barrier for entry is a bit higher.

Personally, and I accept this is an elitist position, if a reviewer doesn't engage with the book in terms of actual literary criticism, I find the review to be worth much less, and the book is likely not worth my time either. If I'm looking for slop, I'll find slop reviews that mention why characters or settings were good/compelling rather than just "vibes".

I tend to read ‘out and around’ my favorite authors in short thematic stints and I haven’t had to stop reading a book cause it was trash in quite some time.

For example here’s one of my little explorations:

• Gene Wolfe
• Ursula K Le Guin
• John Crowley
• Charles Dickens
• The Brontë Sisters
• Karl Marx
• Michael Moorecock (thanks for the recs by the way, am about to finish the first Elric story and this is goooood fantasy!)

This might look all over the place but there are common threads that pushed me to the next author each time.

Edit: well maybe not a strong thread from Marx to Moorecock, but I wanted some fantasy after the theory.

Occasionally I've used Goodreads but that's more to confirm suspicions about a book. Any book can have lots of good reviews but if all the negative reviews are saying what I suspected about it then I skip.

Granted this strategy is very hit-or-miss.

You should consider reading short story publications like Clarkesworld if you dont already. They are basically like auditions for spec fiction authors and a great way to find new ones. They also feature alot of stories that wouldn't ever get published any other way.

Your guess is as good as mine, tbh. I go based on vibes and read so fast that I can tear through a 500 page book in a night if it's good enough to keep me reading. Or if I just want to get it over with. So finding the time to read is less of an issue for me.