Week Five Prompt

 

Book reviews are one of the ways I decide whether or not to purchase a book and how many copies to get. Not having reviews for e-books only books is going to make the number of those purchased much less. Not only does it make it difficult to decide if they will circulate well, but it also makes them harder to discover.

Although one review for The Billionaire’s First Christmas was more formal than the other, I do find them both reliable and helpful for someone looking for a book. Both reviews describe the plot and how the reviewers felt about the book. For the most part they followed John Updike’s guidelines for reviewing books. Although neither review quoted the book, they did give brief summaries that didn’t give away the plot and the more informal review cited where the reviewer felt the book was deficient. Whether or not I agree with his review that the plot being “too Christmassy” and centered around the CEO’s hatred of Christmas makes the plot “odd,” I appreciate that the reviewer explained where he felt the plot fell short. As a reader I can decide from his comments whether it is a book I would like or not. I do think I would purchase this book for my library because the Hallmark type of stories do well there, especially around Christmas time.

The reviews are extremely positive and would encourage me to add Angela’s Ashes to the library collection. Booklist states libraries will experience demand and that people will be talking about the book. Library Journal expects it to become a classic. These very favorable reviews would make me want to add it to the library’s shelves.

I do not think it’s fair that certain types of books and certain authors get reviewed to death, with other books and authors getting little to no coverage. This makes it difficult for new or lesser known authors to get found and makes the collection less diverse.

As a reader, negative reviews are helpful when looking for the next book to read. I want to know specifically why someone did not like a book because what does not appeal to them might appeal to me. I do not think most readers look through multiple review publications when searching for books to read, so being able to see both positive and negative reviews in the same place is more helpful. As a librarian, I appreciate both positive and negative reviews because they indicate how popular a book might be with our patrons.

I read reviews for every book I purchase at the library. Positive reviews sway me to purchase books because the more they are popular with reviewers, the more likely they are to be popular with patrons. For my own personal reading, I choose books based off reviews from Kirkus and Goodreaders. I like a mix of professional and non-professional reviews. Knowing what others did or didn’t like about a book helps me decide if it is something that would appeal to me.