I've provided a link to a Google sheet with a ranking of most of the books I've read over the past few years. They are ranked approximately by, "If my memory of this book was totally erased, how much would I enjoy reading it again?". The dividing line between "Books I really like" and "Books that are okay" is at Algorithms to Live By, which is currently rank 35. A book only needs to be better than AtLB to resolve YES, the actual numerical ranking spot of 35 does not matter.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1mBVNGCv6i35hSttUvVu9ySKrx6Q0MYWDRZwryCghEzM/edit?usp=sharing
I rank series together when the quality stays roughly the same or improves through the series, I rank them separately when I feel quality drops through a series. If you suggest a first book in a series, and I enjoy the rest of the series, it will get extra points; if I don't like the rest of the series, it will get negative points, at my subjective discretion. I both read books and listen to audiobooks; if you think a book is a signficantly better in one format I can use that format.
Major factors affecting rank include:
Ease of reading, i.e simple and entertaining prose that does not trip me up or bore me. Mother of Learning, I'm Glad my Mom Died and Rock Falls, Everyone Dies did very well on this metric.
Entertaining and exciting content, i.e it makes me want to consistently turn the page to read more. HPMOR, The Last Horizon, and Different: Gender Through the Eyes of a Primatologist did very well on this metric.
Informative content, i.e it teaches me true facts about the world, especially on topics I enjoy or find useful and haven't seen elsewhere. The Elements of Computing Systems, Shake Hands with the Devil, and Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst did well on this metric.
Being a good conversation piece, both for online and/or in real life, such as classics, both traditional and online classics. A Song of Ice and Fire and Worm did very well on this metric. This metric is by far the lightest factor I evaluate on but still has some influence on rank.
Reading Order
I reserve the right to read the books in any order I want to, but I will generally rotate through books using this schedule:
Book from the list with the most traders
Book from the list with the highest %
Book from the list at random using RNG
I will commit to reading at least 50 pages of any book before resolving it "no". I do not need to finish a book before giving it "yes", in particular for non-fiction where a portion of it is really good and another portion is not useful or informative and I leave it unfinished. I read through roughly four books at the same time, one at my home PC, one at work, one on my phone, and one on Audible.
Arbitary specific preferences of mine:
My favourite fiction genre is fantasy, I'm okay with sci-fi but like it much less than the average nerd
I love evolutionary psychology done right, but evolutionary psychology done wrong is a huge turn off
I'm in the Canadian military and enjoy books on the topic
I'm economically libertarian, books where socialists are automatically good guys and corporations are automatically bad guys is a turn off
I love litRPGs, but not when it's literal "set in a video game" or "transported to a video game world" litRPGs, then it's a big turn off
Feel free to add suggestions. I've taken answers from top predicted books on similar markets, although most similar markets look for fiction and I'm open to non-fiction. I will not bet because it is subjective resolution.
Finished Hitchhiker's Guide. It's a classic and was a fairly easy read, I didn't have to force my way through. But it just felt like everything that happened was random chaos, instead of being funny and interesting. It probably was hurt by the Seinfeld Isn't Funny effect, where it's style was copied by many other media that I've enjoyed, making it seem unoriginal to me. It gets 69 on my rankings.
I'm going to read Ruins of Ambrai next, because I want to read a fantasy novel. I will read it on my phone.
I'm still reading Thrawn and Hitchhiker's Guide, and two other books not in this market. I don't want to give any extra hints about if I'm liking them or not after I've started them because that's giving free mana to whoever adjusts the odds after I give my position, without actually giving me any utility since I've already started the book.
I finished Permutation City. I've seen the main concept of simulated humans before in the short story Lena by qntm that I thought made me think about the relevant questions in a more elegant way. A lot of the other ideas Permutation City wants me to think about I don't think were worth thinking about. I rank it 66 in my current rankings(Below cordyceps but I've also read a few other books in the meantime) and resolve it No.
I have not finished Godel Escher Bach, but I'm enjoying it and it's a dense book that takes a while to get through, so I'm going to resolve it an early Yes. I hope that doesn't sap my motivation to read anymore of it.
@mongo I will now begin Stories of Your Life and Others as the next most traded book, to read on my phone.