Friday, January 18, 2008

"Booking Through Thursday"

"This week’s question is suggested by Puss Reboots:
How much do reviews (good and bad) affect your choice of reading? If you see a bad review of a book you wanted to read, do you still read it? If you see a good review of a book you’re sure you won’t like, do you change your mind and give the book a try?"

I use reviews as tools to help me decide what to read. But I don't allow the reviews to do all the work for me. Reviews are useful in learning the general plotlines in books. There are times when I thought I knew a book's topic but was completely wrong. I would rather find that out before getting the book. and wasting my time.
Even bad reviews are helpful. One reviewer may hate a book for all the reasons I would love it. Or a bad review might dampen my enthusiasm, it's true, and cause me to look elsewhere, but again that's helpful in not wasting my time.
Correspondingly a good review might make me consider reading a book that I would not pick up on my own, but only "might." Reviews can help me avoid or include books in my reading time.
Life is too short to read bad books.
(submitted by Moon Rani)

1 comment:

Book Calendar said...

I usually use big long lists of suggested books to read to find a new books sometimes. Things like the Amazon top 100 books, or the New York Times Books top 100. I might if I am lucky find one or two titles worth looking at.

A lot of the time I go to specialty sites because I want a specific type of book, Locus Magazine for science fiction for example, or TCJ-- The Comics Journal for a graphic novel. Usually specialty sites like Romantic Times do a much better job selecting books.