Week 5 Prompt

Week 5 Prompt

This week we are discussing book reviews. First off, a point I feel strongly about is that book reviews are crucial. Books will not be purchased, circulated, or read if there were not reviews. I suppose, there are some individuals that dive right into a book without doing any research beforehand, but that book is available for them in the first place because of people reviewing it. A library will not have it available, or even a bookstore, if there was not someone vouching for the novel. 

I feel that collection development does go hand in hand with book reviews. In regards to Ebook only books that may not have any reviews, I feel that it may be hard for a library to add a book like this to their collection. If there are no reviews, the book may not even get any attention in the first place. Now, if a patron were to request a book that does not have any reviews, I feel there is a possibility it would be added to the collection. If I were in this situation, I would do my own research on the book. Do people like this author? Do they have other books that are well liked? Does this book fall under a popular genre? These questions, as well as others, are important when choosing whether to add something to a collection or not. 

I took a look at the reviews for the Ebook only romantic suspense novel. I thought that the Amazon review was slightly more reliable than the blog post review, but neither were that great. As for the Amazon review, I thought they included a few details that were important. They mentioned that the book is clean, and it has dual POV. The review was short, but they included some great information. The blog review was decent. They included a good synopsis, which is always a great tidbit to include. I feel that this review was quite blunt and straight to the point. I genuinely could not tell if the person who made this review liked the book or not. They seemed like they had some ill feelings towards it, but then they ended the review with saying they really enjoyed it. I understand they were critiquing the book, but it left me a bit confused. For this reason, I am not sure the review is incredibly reliable.  

The reviews for Angela's Ashes were quite convincing. Based on the reviews, I would definitely add this book to my collection. The book was positively talked about and overall, it seems that it is a great memoir that all individual's would enjoy. 

As far as book reviews go, I feel that it is unfair that some books get raved about, while other great novels don't get much recognition. On the other hand, these books get enormous amounts of recognition because they truly are great novels. I do feel that it would be better if more Ebook only resources could get the same amount of reviews that popular print books receive, but I am just not sure how this could happen. The lack of reviews for some books, and the surplus for others most definitely affects whether a library will add it to their collection or not. Unfortunately, if a book does not have any reviews, a library will not add it to their collection. The only way to change this would be for a patron to request the resource, and maybe even give it some praise while their at it. 

I think negative reviews of books are important. Personally, I would never absolutely slander a book. I would feel horrible doing so. Although, I think that negative reviews could help those deciding whether they want to read it or not. Negative reviews can also help a library decide if they want to add it to their collection or not. On the other hand, negative reviews are subjective, just as positive reviews are. Therefore, doing research on the author and other books they have published is also important when you are deciding whether or not to add it to a collection. As for me, I always read reviews before I start a book. Every time I pick up a book that I am deciding whether to read or not, I look it up on Goodreads. I cannot remember the last time I didn't look at reviews before reading a book.