I get the Tor.com e-newsletter, among dozens of others, so I came to this article, which I thought I’d share, as it can be applied to mystery genre reading just as well as SFF.
Stop Feeling Guilty About the Books You Haven’t Read Yet. Enjoy.
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Tip the Wink 
I get the Tor.com newsletter also and I saw that article and read it this morning. It is a very good article and so true.
True for mystery / crime fiction just as much as SFF. I enjoyed the comments too.
Yup, true. There are a number of books on the bestseller lists that “everyone is talking about” which I put in a different category: “Mysteries for people who read two or three mysteries a year” and hence think whatever they read is fabulous. Some (can you say GONE GIRL?) I tried to read but just couldn’t get into it (or care less). Others (THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW) turned me off before the initial hype ran its course. (And no, I have no interest in the upcoming movie either.) You can call it THE NAME OF THE ROSE/SMILLA’S SENSE OF SNOW Syndrome. Maybe it’s just me. Or maybe it’s DA VINCI CODE/50SHADES OF GREY all over again. Just because something sells doesn’t make it worth reading, necessarily.
But the thing is, I don’t care. You want to read it? Great. You really loved it? Excellent. Maybe it’s reverse snobbishness. But I’m OK with that. I don’t have enough time for the books and authors I do want to read without feeling guilty about the others.
True, Jeff. I just tried and gave up on Djinns of the Purple Line, which won the Edgar for best novel. I did 40 pages, but didn’t like setting, characters or plot. Why bother? Everyone but me seemed to like Thursday Murder Club a lot, but I didn’t finish it, and no guilt there. I guess sometimes we – all of us – see, or don’t, something in a book that makes it a “good one” for us. You’re right, too many writers and books I want to get to to worry about the rest.
I don’t feel guilty about the books I haven’t read yet. Rick. But some of the books I have read…Well. that’s a different story.
But no doubt an interesting one!