I confess I hardly ever pick up an uncelebrated book or author unless I’ve done some research. There are so many good books to be read, I don’t want to waste my time on the potentially bad ones. But I read something last night that made me think I’m missing out on some hidden gems.

Over at Critical Mass, the book blog of the National Book Critics Circle, Molly Giles talks about what it was like to judge the 2008 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.

Excited at first about all the books she was going to read (”Free books! New ones! Hardbacks!”), she soon realized what she’d gotten herself into, and dreaded seeing a new brown box filled with books waiting by the back door. She and two other judges together read some 350 books before deciding on this year’s prize, “The Great Man” by Kate Christensen.

After all that reading, here is some of what Giles learned about American fiction:

“That most of what gets published deserves to get published.

That most of what deserves to get published also deserves to be showcased in bookstores, airports, and book clubs — and is not. Few of the titles I loved were publicly visible.

That best-selling authors write as well as writers no one has ever heard of.

That many writers no one has ever heard of should be best-selling authors.

That short story collections are, on the whole, better written than novels. As a result they take longer to read. And they are clearly harder to publish. Most of the collections I read had already won a short story contest.

That so-called ‘young adult’ books are among the best fictions being published.”

So I’m making a vow that for every three bestsellers or award-winning books, I’m going to read something virtually unheard of. And I’m going to start reading short story collections again. I don’t know why I stopped — some of my favorite works are short stories by Eudora Welty, Truman Capote and Kate Chopin.

At the risk of defeating my goal, any suggestions?