Last Week’s Discussion:
When to read book reviews

Book reviews are everywhere and many of them are for books I haven’t read yet. I want to look at them to see if the book is good, to see if it’s worth my time, but I don’t want any spoilers and I don’t want to be biased. So, I thought ask my discussioners when they think is the best time to read a book review. Let’s see what they had to say!

Allie said:

“[If you read a book review before the book,] you’ll notice what the person wrote in their review while you’re reading and the experience wouldn’t be as genuine anymore. […at the same time,] I find myself scared to read a negative review of a book that I like cause it might make me question the way how I feel towards the book…”

Carla Louise said:

“I’m not a fan of book reviews, to be honest. It’s nothing against anyone, but I just like making up my own opinion, you know?? But I do like reading book reviews of books I’ve already read, because then I can have a discussion about said book!”

Simon said:

“[In book reviews,] I try and tell them factualities about characters and the plot rather than opinions, give them a sense of what it’s about and then of course my own opinion about it.”

It seems like a lot of us are in agreement about not reading book reviews before we’ve read the book. It’s one thing if you’re just reading the book for enjoyment. However, if you’re writing book reviews yourself, you may end up writing a biased opinion of the book based on another blogger’s review. So, perhaps it’s best to save that book review until after you’ve read the book. Then you go can go crazy reading tons of them! :p

Check out this week’s discussion on Thursday at 10am EST:
Spoilers in Book Reviews

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I’d love your opinions to improve my book reviews for you!