Prompt 2: Some Thoughts on Book Reviews

I love book reviews and I base a lot of my personal reading on them. I have discovered many great books by reading reviews. I use book requests and book reviews when I purchase books for my library. I purchase many books that have excellent reviews even if patrons haven’t actively requested them. I can’t guarantee that patrons will read them, but books that have unanimously good reviews and a lot of buzz should be added to the library collection.

While I get many requests for popular authors such as James Patterson, Nora Roberts, and Stephen King, I receive many requests for books that seem to be self-published or published by smaller companies through Amazon. Many of these are Christian and Amish romances. Most of these books are not reviewed by the mainstream review sources so I have to base my decision on the reviews by Amazon customers. These books circulate extremely well at my library, so the positive reviews reflect how the patrons will probably feel about the book. Amazon reviews are interesting because it seems like most of the people who review certain types of books LOVE the genre and have nothing but good things to say about them.

I have noticed an increase in books published only in the eBook format and that has made collection development more difficult. There are many books that I never hear about until patrons request them. There are probably some great books that I am missing because they are under the radar.

The reliability of the reviews for The Billionaire’s First Christmas is definitely in question. The two reviews of the eBook are somewhat confusing because at times the reviews seem like they are describing two different books. I did not get a sense of what the book is really about. The Amazon review focused on the female character’s love of Christmas and Santa, while the other review was a bit more balanced but not very well written. I felt like neither did a spectacular job describing the book. This story doesn’t seem like a romantic suspense novel to me; the description and reviews don’t scream romantic suspense. It sounds like a standard clean romance novel. I would purchase this book if a patron requested it because it is a type of book that other patrons would probably read, especially around the holiday season. I wouldn’t purchase this book based solely on these two reviews. I would try to find other reviews that shed more light on the story.

Based on the provided reviews, I would definitely purchase Angela’s Ashes for my library’s collection. I would purchase a copy for all the libraries in my system. If there were any complaints about the book (which I doubt there would be), the reviews would demonstrate the merits of the book. A book that has that many positive reviews is a must add to any library collection.

While it isn’t necessarily fair that some books get more coverage than others, patrons are going to be aware of these books and expect them in the library. There has been a number of books that are self-published and are eventually reprinted by a big publisher because they are that good. I think a really good book will eventually find coverage from some outlet. It’s just a matter of looking in the right places. Word of mouth also helps get the lesser known books into the library collection.

I understand why negative reviews can be controversial and some publications shy away from them, but I think a balance is necessary. If everyone hates a book, I think it is important to get it out there that the book is not good. I think book reviewers have to be tasteful about how they write negative reviews. Flat out trashing a book isn’t going to do anyone any favors. There are many books that people are going to read despite negative reviews, just as there are books that have positive feedback that people will ignore.

The problem with reviews is we all have different tastes. I think it is important to have reviewers write reviews that cover the genres they read and enjoy. I am going to trust a review of Stephen King written by a person who actually reads horror more than one written by a romance fan.