It’s Iola here. Welcome to our Australasian Christian Writers Tuesday Book Chat, where we encourage book lovers to answer our bookish question of the week.
Today’s question is:
Do you read book reviews? Where?
As a book reviewer, I do hope you read book reviews! After all, it’s nice to be needed.
If you do read reviews, then which sites are your favourite? Why?
We look forward to hearing your thoughts. Please join in the conversation in a comment on this post or in a comment on the blog post shared in our Australasian Christian Writers Facebook Group. Or, if you’re feeling wordy (like me), write a blog post and link to it in the comments.
Mainly Amazon but I also go to other reviewers websites if there is a link from social media.
Good point – I’ll often spot a review on Twitter or Pinterest and click through to check out the book.
On the back of the book – bearing in mind that they will only be good ones ;). I receive review emails from writers/reviewers groups and occasionally some writer fb friends will pop in a book review. Sometimes I read book reviews in newspaper ‘weekend’ magazine inserts (when I have time to read them). But, having said that, I usually only read reviews of the genres that interest me.
I got suspicious about the reviews on the back of the book after I realised some of them weren’t actually about that book – they were just vague praise of the author, or praise for a previous book.
I know what you mean about only reading reviews of the genres that interest me. I read a blog post a while back by an author talking about her bestseller … which I’d never heard of. I looked it up, and it was a biography of a Kiwi sports star. Well, that explained why I’d never heard of it!
Always!! Wouldn’t purchase without them. That’s the beauty of having a smart phone with me in the book shop. I read the staff reviews instore and I always check out the newspaper reviews (particular review section of weekend Australian). I also use amazon and goodreads and anywhere else I google.
That’s a clever idea!
sometimes but ironically its often for a book that’s people are talking about or if an author is being a diva about the low stars. I often will read what some are actually saying. I will sometimes read if I am unsure about a book but more likely to read for non fiction. I often read for devotionals. I also often read more of the 3 star reviews.
I am more likely to read from people I know. I will read at amazon and at blogs.
I know what you mean about the low-star divas. It’s especially funny when I’ve already read the book – I then read the low-star reviews and often agree with all the criticisms the reviewer makes, even when I enjoyed the book. All the low-star diva achieves is making me less likely to check out their future books.
Hi Iola – I usually read reviews on Goodreads and Amazon. I also sometimes use the ‘look inside’ feature on Amazon to check out the writing style. I used to buy ‘Good Reading’ magazine semi-regularly and read lots in there too, but it got a bit dear. Also used to enjoy Jennifer Byrne’s Tuesday Book Club TV show, but it’s not running now. Sometimes I’ll also check them out in the weekend newspaper supplements. Now I think about it, I read a lot of review – LOL But it’s mainly because there are so many books on my to-read list and life’s too short to read a bad one.
I’ve never read review magazines or watched book club TV shows – I never even knew they existed! And I agree with you – life is definitely too short to read a bad book.