How to know a book is good before reading it
TL;DR
Time will tell.
Clipping
I listened 2 podcasts given by DHH and he mentioned this similar idea in both episodes.
How to tell a book is good?
See how old it is. A book published years ago and still gets printed is always better.
-- from RR 342 Rails, Development, and More with David Heinemeier Hansson - Devchat.tv and Rework Mailbag 1 - Part 2