I saw someone post in here the other day about how they didn’t enjoy a relatively new, very popular book. I’ve seen a lot of people say this about this novel, very suddenly—after weeks of positive reviews about it. Since then, I’ve been thinking about how readers should navigate reviews when picking a book in this new era of reading.
In the past, people mostly just said or wrote exactly what they felt and you made your decision based off of thoughts around the author’s skill and the themes explored in the book. Now, it’s loads of paid and/or heavily embellished reviews that mislead the reader, which leads to more people reading a book that they would’ve never read otherwise and having a negative experience. I think that makes reviews more unreliable now than they’ve ever been. (It also lessens the quality of the books receiving accolades overtime, but I digress.)
That’s not to say that there aren’t good book reviewers, but that market is very saturated and very few of them do at least a little literary analysis on these titles before highly recommending them as a “life changing” read. (Goodreads is the exact opposite, everyone is a critic and it leaves you even more confused on if a book is even worth looking at, lol.)
So, what’s your process when deciding on what book to read? How do you navigate reviews? What draws you to or turns you away from a book? Are you successful at avoiding bad reads?
I look through year end awards list for books to see what I may have missed. But for most of the time, it’s because I liked the cover while browsing. Giving myself the permission to DNF has been better for me. If I don’t like it, I drop it.
The only time I actually read reviews is for when I am about to DNF a book. If there is anything worth reading through the end. A slog to read could still have a big payoff. Or if it ends just how it started, and you’d best move on.
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There are authors I like whose other work I’ll happily try. There are classics that sound worthwhile. There are a few friends whose recommendations are consistently excellent.
Other than that? It’s a crapshoot. I can filter out certain works based on the synopsis or author, but that’s about it. And of course, even authors I like or classics can end up being massive disappointments.
Depends on what website you are using I’m using story graph which allows users to not only rate the book but to add tags that can help people avoid triggers or chose better books for themselves based off topics. It also recommends by mood and I can set it to include or exclude certain genres. I also follow my favorite YouTuber mikes book reviews I trust his judgement and Im working through classic novels. I haven’t read anything written after I want to say 2008 in about three years.