Always judge a book by its cover
Lunchtime today was spent browsing books in Waterstones. I've been getting through books like a hot knife through butter having recently enjoyed Louise Wener's The Half Life of Stars (she was the lead singer with Sleeper, now a novellist) and Scarlett Thomas's Seaside . Both of those female writers I highly recommend. And so I'm browsing and judging books by their covers, as you do. And the ones I put back on the shelves had one of more of these things on the front cover - a champagne bottle, a wine glass, a stiletto, or the cover sparkled or was pink. To sum up then - if it looks like it might be chick-lit, it goes back on the shelf.