Good reviews v/s bad reviews

[sanyuja]

I found myself asking these questions a few days back.

What is a good book review?

What do you look for in a book review?

Do you read a review to decide whether you want to read the book or not?

Or do you read a review to know people's opinion?

And how does a good review differ from a bad one?

I usually don't read book reviews. One reason for that is sometimes a review reveals something which I wouldn't want to know before reading the book.

I don't need reviews to decide whether I want to read a book or not.

I do want to know people's opinions. I don't need reviews for that -- I have TBF for that

 

[novella]

These are good questions.

I've stopped reading some reviews (The New York Times, for one) because the purpose seems to be to highlight the reviewer, not the book. They will get someone well known with tangential experience or who also has a somewhat similar book out and ask them to write pages and pages on a new book. Inevitably, the review is often more about the reviewer or the writer of the new book or about the subject in general than about the book.

I like reviews to be short and to the point, and I like to read first chapters online to see if I'd read the whole book. Now my favorite review places are The Washington (DC) Post and The (UK) Guardian and Books in Brief in The New Yorker. All I need is a paragraph or two from someone who's actually interested in the book. I don't need a literary celebrity to tell me what to read. Also, I don't have time to read long, involved reviews. Some people wind up reading book reviews instead of books.

 

[LauraHartwell]

I stopped paying attention to reviews some time ago after I realized that I disagree with a lot of the reviewers out there. A review is really just one person's opinion. Not only is it just one person, but it's also someone I've never met, so why should I let them decide if a book is good or not?

 

[Wabbit]

One of the most important things for me in a book review is that they don't give away spoilers!!! Too many reviews give away things. I like a book review to give me an idea of what the novel is about rather than a break down of what the happens with in the book and what the reviewer thought about it all. If I can get an idea of the book's style, feel, and generally what it's about then I can make my own mind up to buy or not rather than have the reviewer tell me.