Welcome to Thoughts for Thursday! This feature is our outlet to talk with you about whatever we currently have on our minds. It might be bookish, it might not! Now for this week's thought:
What Reviews Do You Read? (Part 1)
When you see a new book review pop up on your Feedly (in my case), Bloglovin, or email, what determines whether or not you read that post? This discussion was inspired by a post by Natalie @ Natflix & Books in which she discusses her reasons for reading and not reading reviews (in a general sense) and Nicole's post on book ratings since ratings are part of my decision process as to whether or not I will read a review.
I have different mental categories for reviews that essentially guide my review reading:
1. Super popular book that is about to be released
2. Very popular book that is a bit older
3. A book I have heard mentioned but don't know much about and might or might not be interested in
4. A book that I have never heard of
5. A book that I intend to read and review
6. A book I intend to read but not review
Today I want to focus on category #4 - books I have never heard of (we'll tackle the others later, maybe). In an ideal world, I would have time to read ALL THE POSTS but I only have so much time and so I have to pick and choose what I read.. When it comes to books I have never heard of, I basically have a mental flow chart on whether or not I am going to read the review. (Don't hate me for not being able to read everything!)
If I read a title I have never heard of, I first check to make sure it is YA, then check the rating and/or final thoughts. If the reviewer loved the book, I'll read the full review then comment if I have something to say and add the book to my TBR. If the reviewer absolutely loathed the book I'll still typically read the review to see why but also because I love the snarky-ness in some of the posts! But if the blogger thought the book was middle of the road, the rating and/or final thoughts are about all I check out. I love to support other bloggers but my time is limited and these are the reviews that tend to get cut. (Of course other factors play in like 'Do this blogger and I have similar
taste in books?' or 'Is this a genre I like?' or 'Does it have an
awesome title?' etc)
I have also noticed how comments vary based on the popularity of a book.We tend to receive fewer comments on the books that are lesser known. Have you observed the same trend? I wonder if it is just by chance that our readers do not have much to say about these particular books or if these reviews do indeed get read less because our viewers might not have heard of the book.
So what about you? Do you have a process for deciding what reviews to read? Do you read reviews for books you have never heard of more than, less than, or about the same as other reviews? Do you notice any difference in the amount of comments you receive based on the popularity of the book?
