A book still selling after two hundred years has beaten every trend you’ll ever see. Give it a chapter.

Survival over that long is a filter nothing can fake. Thousands of books were more fashionable in any given decade and are now unread, while the ones that lasted kept being useful to readers whose lives had nothing in common with each other. That is a stronger recommendation than any list of what is popular this month.

Try one chapter of something old before deciding it is not for you. Read it slowly, and let the language be strange for a while. If it still says nothing to you after thirty pages, put it down without guilt and try a different one.