Week Five Prompt

For this week's prompt, I want to start a conversation about the different types of reviews. Different publications review different types of books and they allow different types of conversations. For example, Booklist will not publish negative reviews, while, as you have all seen, Kirkus has no problems with it. Ebook only books, which are increasingly popular (especially in the romance genre) see little to no reviews in professional publications unless they have a big name author, and then still it's usually only RT Reviews (formally Romantic Times) or other genre heavy publications. How does this affect collection development?

I think this can effect collection development depending on the library's collection development practices. It is my belief that a librarian should consult reviews before purchasing books for the collection. I would personally consult multiple review sources and not base a purchase based on one review. However, Booklist, Kirkus and Library Journal are standards in reviews based on my limited experience, if two of these will not publish a negative review then a librarian can't get a true opinion.

I have posted two more documents in the week five files. One is two reviews of an ebook only romantic suspense novel, one from a blog and one from amazon. Look over the reviews - do you feel they are both reliable? How likely would you be to buy this book for your library? Is this ebook even romantic suspense?

I don't feel either are very reliable reviews. The Amazon review is short and does not give a very good summary.  The blog review gets off topic from the start by including information that is unnecessary and unrelated. Neither review gives any information that leads me to believe it is a suspense. 

The other document contains some reviews of Angela's Ashes, by Frank McCourt, an incredibly popular memoir. These reviews are all from professional publications, feel free to find more on your own I just nabbed a few from the Book Review Digest database for you. How do these reviews make you feel about the possibility of adding Angela's Ashes to your collection?

I enjoyed the reviews from Library Journal and School Library Journal, I felt I got more of an overall feel for the book then the others gave me. If I were to just base my purchase on the Kirkus review, I am not sure I would purchase it. The review focuses on sadness and was really depressing leading me to wonder how the book could be enjoyable. The other reviews included information besides just the incredibly sad details and shows how the book can be enjoyable. I feel much more comfortable about adding the book to the collection based on the additional reviews.

Do you think it's fair that one type of book is reviewed to death and other types of books get little to no coverage? How does this affect a library's collection?  And how do you feel about review sources that won't print negative content? Do you think that's appropriate? If you buy for your library, how often do you use reviews to make your decisions? If not, how do you feel about reviews for personal reading, and what are some of your favorite review sources?

I don't think its fair some books get more coverage then others, that being said I would wonder if this is due to the publisher/editor. I think a library would be more likely to have a book that was widely reviewed then a book that was not widely reviewed. I think a does of realism in a review is necessary, some books are not for everyone. If a book is overly descriptive I am less likely to read it if it spends to much time using flowerly language. I use reviews a lot for personal reading, mostly Goodreads, Amazon and blogs.