Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
How do you make up your mind what to read, then? You have to rely on someone's description of the book, surely, and at least a person who's actually read it is likely to have a more "informed" opinion of it than someone who hasn't.
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How? I read the blurb, which is neither a recommendation or a review, but a description (albeit written in a way to entice). I also look at the cover art, or I'll search under particular genres I like already (I call this mooching). Your recommendation 'might' make me aware of a book, movie or an album, but it will in no way attract me to the work at hand. And your opinon of it I neither need nor want to know to make my decision. I don't care if Cory Doctorow recommends X book, if that book doesn't attract 'me' then I'm not reading it, I'm probably not even going to give it a chance.
To illustrate, here are the last 5 books I read:
Johnny Got His Gun - Dalton Trumbo (located after seeing a Metallica video and wondering where the video images came from. Video images led to film, film led to original novel. Novel read)
One Rainy Night - Richard Laymon (re-read after the Zombie thread here reminded me that I hadn't read it in awhile)
The Godwulf Manuscript - Robert B Parker (Started re-reading the series after I finally got my hands on the first series of Spenser For Hire TV Show)
The Thief Who Couldn't Sleep - Lawrence Block (Read a writing instructional book some time ago and a series of detective novels featuring Matthew Scudder. So I thought I'd give his Evan Tanner series a try)
A Russian Journal - John Steinbeck (been looking for this book for a long time, now I have it and I will definitely re-read it again in the future)
Not once did I read a review, take the advice of a friend or gain a recommendation for any of these books.