@dredmorbius@toot.cat@vortex_egg I'll offer a general answer:
- This is something you should be thinking about constantly.
- My own problem isn't for want of materials, but for focus in getting through a specific work.
- (I'm avoiding doing precisely that in answering your toot, BTW....)
- (No, I'm not blaming you, it's on me.)
- I try to keep tabs on the works I really want to read.
- I'm leaning toward having a specific index-card deck that's devoted to this, on the basis that it's 1) physically manifested and 2) can be arbitrarily re-ordered as well as 3) easily supports works being moved to the "it's been read" category.
- "#BOTI" is another related concept: Best of the Interval. Keep track of what the best books/articles/concepts of the past week/month/year/decade have been. You'll end up with a very highly-curated reading list to recommend to others.
- Scan both references and citations for promising new material. A reference with an interesting association / concept, or citations of a highly-significant work, are both promising prospects.
- Mortimer Adler's How to Read a Book, especially the later chapters, is an excellent guide.
- Consider sources as conversations or interrogations.
- Have no regrets at bailing from an unrewarding source.
I'll also look at others' recommendations, reading lists and syllabi, etc. I'm finding with time that individual recommendations and mass-market recommendations are often far less fruitful than the methods above. Subject-matter expert recommendations, on the other hand, especially for older and obscure works, are often gold.
Much new publication is not much worth reading. The back-catalogue is highly underappreciated.