really, i wont bother with a book unless i know (or reasonably guess) id enjoy it.
in the olden days, id purchase, at most, 10 comics a month. all batman or batman-related (like nightwing or jla). an occasional (rare) spawn title or wolverine book, something like that.
i was really limited in what i was willing to buy, and "previewed" all of the issues in a store before hand, so i got a lot of enjoyment out of those i came home with.
there was about a year, i used to steal a significant amount of books (maybe 20 a month!). whoops! that would include a pile of books i liked and a pile of books that i wasn't that impressed with once i read'em.
as many of you know and loathe, i now receive a free box of comics from DC on a monthly basis (typically 3-4 weeks behind when they appear in stores).
id guesstimate thats in the ballpark of 100 books a month (it includes vertigo and wildstorm, etc). first thing i do when i open the box is divide the pile into winners and losers. if its questionable, it goes in the winner pile -- its the first round of selections, after all. that evens things out to about half and half.
the loser pile goes into a box for ebay or donation (to a friend or a charity or even a library, recently).
the winner pile gets reshuffled again, dividing into a batman pile, a misc pile, and a "why did i put this in the winner pile" pile (which gets added to the losers).
then, i prioritize the two remaining good piles, putting the best books on the bottom (a "save the best for last" strategy i use for almost everything i do, for whatever messed up reason).
mostly, ill skim thru those on top (like azrael... i dont even know why its considered a winner... and i haven't known why since like 98), not really wasting much time on them.
in the end, im left with roughly 10 books that i really dedicate any time to. the only books id really bother dedicating time to. amazing, that out of a pile of 100, im not that interested with about 90% of it. recently, those books have been, in order:
nightwing
batgirl
gotham knights
jsa
green arrow (weird!)
jla
catwoman
gotham adventures
gotham central
detective
batman
notably, with the exception of 2 books, the comic book tastes i've had 10-15 years ago are more or less exactly what i'm into today. admittedly, that shows im pretty stubborn and shallow in my selections. even with all the opportunities i've had to expand my habbits, i've never really succesfully been able to do so (which im more than willing to accept at least half the blame for)
but these are the books i love. and, the closer you get to the bottom of that list, the more time i wanna spend on the books. and the the higher the odds are that im gonna re-read it quite a few times. hell, i've re-flipped through batman 611 maybe twenty times in the past 2 weeks.
