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