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It depends on the book, but I chose the "sometimes" answer.
I will often buy a fiction book without having read any reviews. More important to me than a review (as regards novels) are the description, the price, and the sample, which is why I tend to buy most of my fiction at Smashwords.
But for nonfiction reviews are very important to me and I often buy a nonfiction book that has gotten a good review in the New York Review of Books. I pay no attention whatsoever to reader reviews at places like Amazon and Smashwords, largely because I have no way to judge the quality and knowledge of the reviewers. In contrast, I give great weight to reviews in publications like the New York Review of Books, Atlantic Monthly, Smithsonian, American Heritage, and the like -- but primarily for nonfiction; the fiction they tend to review is not fiction that particularly interests me.
The question in my mind is less the number of stars or reviews but the credibility of the reviews and the reviewers. In the Internet Age, determining credibility has become increasingly difficult.
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