Quote:
Originally Posted by Edward M. Grant
That settles it: I'm never trusting a review of a trade-published book again.
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On Amazon, no. There isn't the level of trust to make the review worth reading. If you don't know the reviewer's motive, how can you trust it?
In the New York Times or the Atlantic Monthly, yes, because the reviewer is being paid to be objective, and some effort is made to keep reviewers away from books authored by friends.
Not that old established magazines are perfect here either. Reviewers, however professional, don't know my taste. It always is a risk that I start a book not worth finishing.
Someone may dislike this post because mainstream book review publications ignore their books. The world is unfair -- especially to authors -- and great books can be overlooked. Given limited time, I still am going to stick to paid reviewers hired by professional editors, such as found from links here:
http://realclearbooks.com/