Prompt Response - Week 5

When it comes to reviews, getting any reviews is super important since you know the material is being seen by many since not everyone will review something. Having Ebooks that get little to no reviews can make it difficult to ascertain what the book is about and how others feel about it. It makes it much more difficult for librarians to make determinations when there are no reviews, and it makes it difficult for determinations when there are a few reviews since you are only getting a small taste of what the book has to offer and what a few others think of the book.

For the reviews on the book The Billionaire’s First Christmas by Holly Rayner, we have a taste of what the book is about from the Amazon review and the blog review. It certainly gives a very basic idea of what the book is about, along with a lot of opinions from the reviewers on how the book felt to their tastes, so it gives an idea of what kind of person may be looking for this kind of book and give a decent idea of the story. Overall, they are somewhat reliable, but they don’t match the quality of reviews from professional reviews. I would consider getting this book for the library if shorter books were checked out frequently, along with holiday books.

For the reviews of the book Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt, I get so much of the story and the information seems more formal in these reviews. They get to the heart of the material without having to explain everything, and they help make it easier what the material will entail. It also helps to feel those more emotional passages to help better understand what kind of journey the reader will take when reading the book. It certainly helps more with the decision to include this book in the collection, knowing what sort of material is in the book, as well as helping break down the book for those who may be worried about reading the book with only the insert. It would be a great resource to guide others in case of needing a better understanding of what is in the book. I would certainly include this book in the collection for those who love to read nonfiction memoirs on people’s lives and those who want to feel and understand the emotional state of others in different crises.

Although some books get all the reviews, and others get none, I find that all is fair in the book review war. It’s hard to get books out there and published, although there are different ways to get published nowadays than some time before. Although I may thing that it is unfair, it’s just how the market it, and that you need to know how and where to market your book to get the right audience and to get proper reviews. As for how this affects library collections, some libraries may not get books without reviews, and others may get the book without looking at reviews at all. I believe it entirely depends on their population that visits the library and who requests certain books. Some may be avid book lovers who always request books that get multiple holds, and so they may trust the person’s judgment without looking too far into reviews for the book, though that may be not so often.

For those that may not take negative reviews, I can understand both sides being that they don’t want to publish anything negative to ruin the reading experience of their work, but also being that they may not get proper reviews for books as often as they may like. There is always a positive and negative side when it comes to limiting reviews from others. I think that it would be most appropriate to have different sections for those to know what kind of reviews they are getting into, having positive and negative reviews for everything, though I know that is just an idealist situation. At most, I would just make sure that there is a dedicated section for negative reviews so that people know what they are getting into when reading a review about the book, or there being some sort of label beforehand, such as the star rating from the reviewer so that people can understand that the reviewer really did not like the title or found the book to be mediocre.

Although I do not buy books for any library, I would love to be able to help in that department in the future when it comes to working in libraries. As for my personal reading, I tend to just look at books that interest me and read the description of the book. If I am not 100% sure about whether or not I want to read the book, I will go ahead and look at the reviews on Goodreads and see what the star rating is for the book. Depending on that star rating, I will go ahead and read the book. What I look for in the rating is the overall rating, but I mostly go look and see how many people rate it for each star rating. It helps me get a better idea of what the population thinks of the book, and if it sits about three and a half stars or higher, I tend to give it the chance and read the book. If more people vote three stars or lower, I tend to not pick up the book.