Saturday, February 15, 2014
Prompt response book reviews
When I read book reviews, I look at length and substance. The review from the blog and Amazon were quite short and didn't have much substance to it. These didn't follow the guidelines Erin talked about in her presentation. She talked about quotes from the book and a summary of the book. These two just gave their opinion which I thought was very good. It made me want to buy the books, but for myself and not for the library. For a librarian the book reviews need to have substance and meaning. The review for the eBook and the romantic suspense were much more thought out.
The reviews from Angela's Ashes I thought were very good, but were quite lengthy. I would have a hard time making it through reviews that were all this length. My favorite one was from the BookReview because it was straight forward and funny. Malcolm Jones calls Angela's Ashes , " A splendid memoir of a ghastly Irish childhood." It was very humorous when he talked about going to the doctor and he knew he would be getting better because the doctor farted. After reading this review, I wanted to get this book to put in the collections. I didn't feel the same way about the other reviews. When I read a review I want something to stand out that will make people want to read the book. I appreciate that this man had a hard life, but the tidbit about the doctor farting will intrigue people.
As far as some books getting reviewed more that others, I think it is fair because some books are more popular than others. Every book should have a review because for every book there is a person to read that book. Vampires and Zombie books are more popular now because of the TV shows and the movies. Having a lot of reviews for a book will affect the libraries collections because the library will choose the popular books and the ones with great reviews, but the ones with poor reviews may get left out. The book review sources that don't print negative reviews don't help the library as much as they think they do because you don't know if someone hates the book. I would like to know if someone loves and hates the book. When they saw only the good reviews, it means that they are biased and that is not a good thing.
Before this class, I just looked at Amazon and what people thought about the book I was thinking about buying. I would not buy a book if it had too many negative reviews. I also like to read the reviews that in in the paper. The New York Times has great book reviews. I have just started to look at Goodreads. The local library has some great reviews and it also takes you to Goodreads.
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I like your point that popularity will determine the number of reviews for a book. By your definition, the best books may be the ones with few reviews because they are neither extremely loved or extremely hated. However, the fact that popularity and the apprehension to publish negative reviews can impact the overall quality of a review site is why I say that reviews should only be one tool that librarians use to make their purchasing decisions.
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ReplyDeleteI agree that every book deserves a review because there will always be an audience for it. I for one read a book because of the abstract, not the review. If a book sounds interesting to me I will read it even if if received negative reviews. Take for instance Fifty Shades of Grey. This book was not written well and received many negative reviews. However, there is a huge demand for it. This is one of those books that you either love or hate. I read it because I wanted to see what the hype was all about but would not be able to write a positive review about it but the library has to keep multiple copies around because it is still has a high circulation rate. Therefore, libraries obviously don't always go by reviews when they are ordering materials. In fact, I feel that they go by popularity more.
I have been thinking about the mechanics of using the various types of reviews. One of the compelling things about customer reviews on Amazon or GoodReads.com is that both are easily accessible. If I wanted to find a review of most any fiction book, I would expect both to have either a rating or review. For popular items, the number of reviews may run into the hundreds or thousands. Strangely, the big reviewers don't seem to make their reviews as readily available. I see myself continuing to use GoodReads.com and Amazon largely because they are so much more convenient.
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