I’m superstitious and like to close out the year with a really high-quality read because I’m afraid of jinxing the next reading year if I choose something crappy or even of middling quality.
My rule of thumb is that if I’m going to be reading in English, the book must be at least 20 years old. This dramatically increases its chances of not being crap. If it’s Latin American, it should be published after 1980. If it’s in Russian, it should be less than 10 years old.
I’m very OCD and weird about my reading. However, these rules are not useless. I have found a wonderful novel in English that I hope to finish tomorrow and share a review.