Petra X > Status Update

Just some of Brandon Sanderson's (Writing Excuses, Intentionally Blank)

No, the examples you mention are usually loud, annoying and not very useful. As for *reading* reviews; I'm also on LibraryThing (sucks) and StoryGraph (sucks even more). GR isn't good but it's the best out there right now.

Nup, GR and Amazon is where I read any reviews, plenty enough info for my choices Petra. Hope you stay with GR.

If a book interests me I’ll search online for reviews in print or interviews with author as well as seeing what my GR community has to say. If it doesn’t interest me much I often don’t review it or will stick to blurbs from publisher or Amazon.

I’m addicted to booktube! I watch different people for different genres, so depends what you’re interested in? I think so far the most diverse I found is BooksWithEmilyFox, she’s on GR too!

I definitely hit up science blogs etc for new non-fiction. It appears to me that GR doesn’t put much effect into promoting non-fiction. (Maybe it’s just me)

I follow a channel named "Better Than Food" on YouTube. Though I always prefer GR for getting book-related info/insights over any other social/ infotainment platforms.

Lyn wrote: "If a book interests me I’ll search online for reviews in print or interviews with author as well as seeing what my GR community has to say. If it doesn’t interest me much I often don’t review it or..."

Same here.

I'm no longer listening to listen/watch reviews. Some years ago I listened to a Youtube account Universidade de são Paulo - a Brazilian Youtube account. It was really cool.

Audrey wrote: "Just some of Brandon Sanderson's (Writing Excuses, Intentionally Blank)"

I guess you have to be a fan of his to really enjoy them.

Wulf wrote: "No, the examples you mention are usually loud, annoying and not very useful. As for *reading* reviews; I'm also on LibraryThing (sucks) and StoryGraph (sucks even more). GR isn't good but it's the ..."

Have to agree with you about LibraryThing and Storygraph. LibraryThing people up their own arse (or they were back when there was a major influx of GR people when it got sold to Am) and Storygraph doesn't have reviews only tags.

Petra on hiatus - having fun in the city wrote: "Audrey wrote: "Just some of Brandon Sanderson's (Writing Excuses, Intentionally Blank)"

I guess you have to be a fan of his to really enjoy them."

Probably.

John wrote: "Nup, GR and Amazon is where I read any reviews, plenty enough info for my choices Petra. Hope you stay with GR."

I'm not thinking of leaving. I'm looking for reviews that are in a different format than text. I'm getting frustrated with the freebie reviews just dominating all the new books I look at for the bookshop, ie fiction, which I don't read. And these people post them everywhere.

Agreed re over-investing in GR! Please let your public know if you find a great podcast or reviewing site.

Younger people are more likely to do video reviews, but I usually don't trust their judgment just because they haven't gotten as cynical and jaded as us older folks.

I have enjoyed Caleb Joseph ("Insane Reader") and Chandler Ainsley on YouTube. But I try to stay away from YouTube so I don't waste even more time on the internet.

was watching booktube but I seem to mostly find fantasy reviews. There hasn't been much to make we want to load up on that genre.

Audrey wrote: "Younger people are more likely to do video reviews, but I usually don't trust their judgment just because they haven't gotten as cynical and jaded as us older folks...."

Truth! You are hilarious Audrey :-)

None of those. Already GR has too many reviews for me to keep up with.

I’m mainly on Goodreads. I read very quickly, so I don’t have the time or patience for video reviews when I could be getting the same information (if not better) from Goodreads.

It just occurred to me that I occasionally refer to channels like Gem Mint Collectibles on YouTube. They review graphic novels and provide a page-by-page walkthrough. Good if you want to know what you’re getting before buying something expensive. Gem Mint had a great review of the Vagabond manga, so I bought the first book in the series for my father.

‘Manga haul’ videos can be useful as well. Not so much detailed reviews of specific books, but it’s interesting to see what people pick in store and their general thoughts about a series. It helps me pick up new series to try.

Found the You Tube algorithm pushed poor book reviews at me and too much data was being consumed to very little purpose, GR much easier to navigate and select the reviews you need to see, although improvements could be made like selecting the one and two star reviews and see what flaws have been exposed. GR still best overall IMO.

Boadicea wrote: "improvements could be made like selecting the one and two star reviews..."

GR can almost do this. On the book page, scroll down to the "Community Reviews" section. At the top is a histogram showing numbers of ratings from 5 stars down to 1. Click on, for instance, "2 stars" to see all the two star reviews.

If you want to look at one and two star reviews, you have to do it sequentially. If there is a way of showing both the one-star and the two-star reviews together on a single page, I have not yet found it.

Boadicea wrote: "Found the You Tube algorithm pushed poor book reviews at me ..."

Why do they do that do you think? Were these reviews by top reviewers who brought them in advertising cash? Or ...?