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Reading Reviews

Posted by Izzy G. on Tuesday, January 31, 2012
To go along with my general insanity, I subscribe to about 115 blogs on Google Reader, so every week, I have a ton of reviews hitting my feed. If I actually read each one slowly and in detail, I'd probably end up spending more time reading reviews than sleeping.

Instead, I usually only read reviews for books that I'm interested in or that catch my attention, and when I do, I tend to skip the synopsis, skim the body paragraphs, and closely read the conclusion. I find this is the fastest way to glean information about the reviewer's thoughts without losing or getting bogged down by detail.

The only exceptions are when I come across reviews written by bloggers whose opinions I particularly trust. These are essentially people who I've noticed (a) have similar likes/dislikes in books as me and (b) articulate their feelings very well.

How do you guys read reviews? And if you're also bloggers, has it changed the way you write reviews?

6 comments:

Small Blonde Hippy said...

Reading other bloggers reviews has definitely changed the way I write mine. I used to waffle a lot, but now I try to make my reviews concise - what I liked, what I didn't like, and if I'd reccomend it.

January 31, 2012 at 4:06 AM
Anonymous said...

I do the same thing. I also subscribe to over a 100 blogs, so I find myself looking at ones that I am thinking of reading myself.

January 31, 2012 at 5:47 AM
Annette Mills said...

I'm pretty much with you. I follow over 200 blogs, and I definitely skim. I don't read the summaries. I might read the first paragraph, just to get the premise. I want to know YOUR OPINIONS. I don't want you to tell me the story, and I have stopped following blogs that do just that. That's why, usually I skip to the last paragraph, to get the "I liked this because." Some reviewers include their opinions throughout the entire review, and I tend to read those more carefully. It also helps if the review has small, spaced paragraphs. I will almost always skip a review that is one looooong paragraph. I need organization, so I can quickly recognize the parts that I want to read.

January 31, 2012 at 7:57 AM
Unknown said...

I just posted on this topic about a week ago :) There were lots of different opinions - Personally, I tend to read reviews only if I particularly admire/relate to the blogger, if I see the cover EVERYwhere and finally just want to know what it's about, or if the book is written by one of my favorite authors.

January 31, 2012 at 12:08 PM
We Heart YA said...

That Hapa Chick actually just did a great post that basically sums up what makes us read (or not read) reviews: http://thathapachick.blogspot.com/2012/01/what-makes-you-read-book-review.html

Like you, we have a ton of blogs in our reader, so we have to be choiceful otherwise we'd be on the internet all day!

Since we don't review books exactly, it doesn't impact how we review, but we definitely try to ask ourselves, "Is this post something WE would want to read about?" whenever we blog.

January 31, 2012 at 5:02 PM
Julia @ That Hapa Chick said...

I don't know how many blogs I'm subscribed too but I'm pretty sure it's more than 115. *gulp* Yeah I definitely don't read everything that runs through my reader. That being said when I do read reviews normally I will skim them or if they're particularly short and engaging I'll read the whole thing. I comment just about every time though. :)

February 1, 2012 at 9:36 PM

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