To echo Mr. Spira’s comment, I have only so much free time. I can’t sample hundreds of books to find the ones I like. For good or bad, the “classics” or some other publicized book are a useful marketing tool to help me make a selection.

One of the advantages of Medium is the recommendations of books to read. I think I’ve read about eight books since I joined in April. Only one was mediocre. “Solving for Democracy” was a real jewel: this author is definitely out-of-the-box thinker when it comes to political science.