What gives you the right?
I'm an avid reader.Heh heh heh! No big surprise there right? I mean I usually am right 2 or perhaps 3 books at a time. People ask me how, why, etc. I don't know. I get bored easily. I lose things a lot, right now I don't know where my glasses are and I need those to see. But that's not the point. Just like I have 3 different manuscripts being written at the same time, while not simultaneously cause even I'm not that crazy, when I get blocked or frustrated or think my writings crap (depending on my day and the way the wind of life is blowing) I pick up a different manuscript cause as I said I get bored easily. Again not the point.
I love to read. I have books from high school, even elementary school still.
Okay the point - I don't like reviews. I try not to read them. And I often wonder who gives the reviewer the right to review? What are the credentials? Qualifications?
Just a love of books? I have that.
A degree in English? I have that too.
A lot of books I get I buy either from the cover art is interesting and the blurb interested me and i've browsed a few pages and it caught my attention. Or from word of mouth like Michael Baisden's God's Gift to Women my best friend recommended it and I agree, excellent book. Now if I had just went by the reviews, I probably would have passed on it.
How many people have passed up a good book because of a bad review? Or picked up a bad book because of a good review?
Aren't reviews just another person's opinion? I mean, when did we start letting others dictate what would be of interest to us in reading and in life. Why should their opinion matter and not our own? Why don't we trust ourselves? Obviously something about the book must have interested us or we wouldn't have picked it up right?
Sometimes I think I'm going to start a book review site with my friends and co-workers who read. We read all types of books.
But me, I'll focus on the "black" books. The African American, Multicultural and even erotic romance and erotica books because they get a lot of bum rap in reviews.
I have a degree in African Studies so that should qualify me right? I read alot? And I have sex sometimes so I know what turns me on.
So - do you read reviews? Go by word of mouth?
posted by angeleque @ 2:12 AM
2 Comments:
I go by word of mouth of course. I know what you mean by critics and whether they are qualified or not. First of all who elected them? That's the point, nobody did! Nice site; keep up the good work.
To me reviews and word of mouth are the same. Reviews are formal, and word of mouth is a informal kind of review. *g* I do read reviews but I take them at face value. Just because a reviewer likes a book doesn't mean I'm going to like it too. The same with word of mouth. Just because a friend likes a book doesn't mean I'm going to like it. I listen to what my friends say about a book. Then I check it out. Read the blurb and first 3 chapters. If I like what I've read so far, I buy it. If not, back to the shelf.
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