01-23-2013, 10:12 AM | #16 |
Basculocolpic
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Who said reading was dead?
Not a fan of MJ fans but I have to respect their passion. These are people in his own age group, right? |
01-23-2013, 10:49 AM | #17 |
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01-23-2013, 11:08 AM | #18 |
Basculocolpic
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01-23-2013, 11:11 AM | #19 |
The Dank Side of the Moon
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01-23-2013, 11:13 AM | #20 |
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Being upset about a book and having read it are two different things. Consider the people who say that Harry Potter is demonic. They haven't read it for themselves, in fact, they believe that simply reading it opens them up to demonic powers. They've been told that it is evil, and that's good enough for them. These people flocking to give negative reviews of this book haven't read it either.
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01-23-2013, 12:10 PM | #21 |
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01-23-2013, 12:29 PM | #22 |
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01-23-2013, 01:52 PM | #23 |
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I tend to ignore book reviews on Amazon. If I'm interested in a book, I'll download a sample to read on my Kindle and decide after reading that.
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01-23-2013, 02:00 PM | #24 |
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I enjoy the reviews and find them helpful. It's pretty obvious when they are either too praising or too punishing, but between the blurbs, samples and 'averaging' the reviews I can generally tell if a book fits my needs or not. Not always of course -- even with all of that duds still slip through.
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01-23-2013, 02:49 PM | #25 |
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I find them useful, as well, Kenny, although it's not helping my buying addiction much (regardless of my resolution to catch up on my TBR list first).
For instance, I saw these incredible reviews for The Sea of Tranquility at goodreads the other day and before I knew it, I owned it!! I'm weak. Still, the reviews are impressive. (Haven't read the book yet). |
01-23-2013, 03:09 PM | #26 |
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I find reviews useful to help filter out books before I download the sample. Reviews can be suspiciously high, like when a newly published book suddenly has 15 reviews, all five-stars. And the reviews look phony like "John Doe did it again, with another masterpiece..." And a high number of negative reviews can help sway my decision to download the sample, but I'll look over the reviews before I decide not to download the sample. If I think the negative reviews have a point, I might not download the book. If I think they are dumb reviews, I'll ignore them.
For me, the sample is for when the book has passed the initial tests: the cover looks like some thought went into it, the blurb is well-written and interesting, and there's no red flags in reviews. The initial tests are done pretty quickly. Reading the sample takes time. |
01-23-2013, 03:51 PM | #27 |
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It would be interesting to get a statistical check of the influence of Amazon's review system on sales. Do positive/negative ratings actually lead to increased/reduced sales?
Mind you, it surprises me that people actually take notice of the opinions of people unknown to them, unless they actually state a relevant fact. |
01-23-2013, 03:56 PM | #28 |
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If I want a review before I purchase a book, I might check out Goodreads or find even a general description of the book, that's often good enough for me. It doesn't even have to be a review, good or bad. I only checked out this review after reading this thread. And no, Amazon reviews, especially those about this book, don't entice me to buy a book at all, nor do the negative comments keep me from buying it, just not an interesting read to me. What else can be said about Michael Jackson that hasn't already been said?
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01-23-2013, 04:08 PM | #29 | |
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Quote:
I can think of a way to test this: Have test subjects examine a list of 10 books, and they get three (or some other number) of the books for free. The subjects are divided into two groups. Each group sees the same list of books, except that the reviews are different. People could see the covers, read the blurb, and read the sample (obviously a small sample, for the sake of time). If reviews matter, we should see a difference between the two groups in which books they select. It doesn't surprise me that people use other people's opinions to make decision. Word of mouth from people I know ranks at the top for selecting books. Reviews from people I don't know are still useful, although of less value. One time when I was going out to dinner, there was one Chinese restaurant that was packed with people. Rather than eating there, we went to a different Chinese restaurant that was totally empty. We didn't want to wait, so we went to the empty one. We really should have waited for a table at the first restaurant. I didn't know any of those people at that restaurant, but that they were eating there instead of the other place was a sort of "review". Of course, the opinions of others aren't always right. I've found great restaurants that aren't very popular, and popular restaurants aren't always very good. |
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01-23-2013, 04:14 PM | #30 |
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I remember when an author stuck her foot in her mouth. Hundreds of people wrote reviews who never even read a sample attacking her book. This has been going on for a long time. *sigh*
The reviews on Amazon specially KDP books are usually fake to begin with. Authors get their family, friends and other authors or people from Facebook or Twitter. Some promise a free book in return for a favorable review. I have read several books that got negative reviews that I've really enjoyed. I had to wonder who the author ticked off? I've also read several books with tons of good reviews only to find the book was mediocre at best. It isn't just books. It happens with music too. |
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