I need to stop looking up reviews for everything I buy

I found a funky little used bookstore in my hometown recently. It might be my new favorite. There's a big sci-fi section which has a great selection of those mass market paperbacks I love so much. Usually on my first round through a bookstore I'll make a point not to consult the to-read list on my phone. Instead, I'll just take each title as it passes by, absent-minded and free of agenda. So I'm carrying on this way until I pass a copy of Mindscan by Robert J. Sawyer. I've been meaning to read something by Sawyer and the little blurb on the back of the book seems interesting. $6? Sounds good to me. All the stars were aligning in favor of snapping up this little fellow and riding off into the sunset. Then that familiar bug crawled into my ear and said: is this the right entry point into Sawyer's work? What if it's been universally panned as one of his worst books? It'd be a shame for my first experience with a new author to be a poor one. I should check Goodreads. Feeling like an…