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Thursday, June 2, 2011

Booking through Thursday: Do You Read Reviews?



I'm participating again today in Booking Through Thursday, where the questions are:

Do you read book reviews? Whose do you trust? Do they affect your reading habits? Your buying habits?


The answer? You bet I do!

I have always paid attention to book reviews, even way before I had a blog. I would read the reviews in USA Today (I really liked Deirdre Donahue's reviews), women's magazines and the like.

Since starting blogging, and especially since starting this book blog, book reviews have definitely influenced my reading and buying habits.

A recent case in point: I read (actually bought it, at Borders!) Connie Willis' To Say Nothing of the Dog because of a review I read that was part of Semicolon's Saturday Review of Books, and it kicked off a spree of reading Connie Willis books. (I'm still looking for a couple of them.)

I also got into P.D. James' Adam Dalgleish mysteries thanks to a Saturday Review of Books review.

Those are just a couple of recent examples. I'm sure there are more, and at least 5 books on my Goodreads "to-read" list are there because I read bloggers' favorable reviews.

Now, I wouldn't necessarily avoid a book if a reviewer didn't like it, but it would weigh in my decision...and if a reviewer genuinely raves about the book, I'll definitely be influenced to read it.

How about you?

If you're visiting from Booking Through Thursday, please, please, please leave a comment, even if it's a very short one! I'd love to know you stopped by.



You can participate in Booking Through Thursday here!
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6 comments:

  1. Meg @ A Bookish AffairJune 2, 2011 at 4:24 PM

    Yes! I've always read book reviews even before I started my book blog!

    Here's my answer: http://abookishaffair.blogspot.com/2011/06/booking-through-thursday-5-reading-book.html

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ayanami FaerudoJune 2, 2011 at 4:56 PM

    Hello! There I said it. LOL.

    Yes, reading reviews AFTER reading the book is way more my style since I do not want to be influenced by another's opinion both in reading the book and forming my own reviews.

    Thanks for visiting my blog. ^_^

    ReplyDelete
  3. SoniaJune 2, 2011 at 5:18 PM

    Yeah, I definitely agree with what you said :) I especially liked that bit about not necessarily avoiding books because of negative reviews but usually going for the ones with positive reviews. If I really wanted to read a book before reading a bad review, it usually won't stop me. New follower! :)

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  4. DawnTreaderJune 2, 2011 at 11:35 PM

    Thanks for visiting my BTT post.
    I've always read a lot of British crime fiction and PD James is an "old acquaintance". I'm used to seeing Roy Marsden as Dalgliesh from the TV adaptations.

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  5. ShirleyJune 3, 2011 at 7:54 AM

    Yes, I read book reviews and use them to a great extent when deciding to purchase a book. That's not to say I don't just go to the store and make a gut decision based on the synopsis, because I do, but my wishlist consists of books recommended by my favourite reviewers/bloggers.

    My Bookshelf

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  6. Gigi AnnJune 4, 2011 at 12:30 PM

    I read reviews, I like the book bloggers reviews best, I think they are more honest than the professional reviews. However, that is just my opinion. I love reading the book reviews on Goodread, because there are a variety of reviews. I like to read them just for the fun of it.

    ReplyDelete