Discussion When You Want to Read a Good Novel, What Do You Look For?

I don't ever look for just any old good novel. If that were the case I'd either reread a book I love or pick up a classic. So when I'm looking for new novels I generally either looking for something specific; a particular genre or setting or story idea or a combination of the above, or I've come across a book that has a story hook I'm interested in exploring. For these, I put a little faith in the impressions people have of the book in question, but things like ratings or reviews are meaningless. I read a number of isekai (and adjacent) stories and I fully expect these to be terrible so why would I be swayed by people confirming that the one I'm looking it is actually terrible? And if the claim is that the book is good, why should I believe the rating?

 

I generally don't read the reviews but look at the statistics of the novel (for example, the view the popularity of the novel on Qidian), then read the first few chapters and decide if I want to continue reading or not.
I do look at the ratings but they don't really affect me that much in my decision but I do look at tags and avoid books that have harem cause I hate those

 

First of all, no harem. 'System' is nope. About transmigration, or 'isekai', I only read JP (KR is good, too, but I only read those if the reviews are overwhelmingly positive.)
If it's a WN, check if there's an LN already. If there is I will read it.

Also, surprisingly, I just gotten into western stories again (RoyalRoad). I filtered out all the 'cultivation' and 'harem' stuff and the result is really good. I recommend checking the ranking because they're actually true.

 

First: similarity to my fav ones
Second: read description to see if it's catchy
Third: proceed to read it directly
PS: I rarely read reviews before reading as it would impact my mood~

 

A somewhat good rating, prevalent romance with no irrelevant partners in future arcs, and an interesting or whimsical battle/magic system. I would also not want to read any system/game novels.