About reviews

Barbara Vey talks about reviews on her blog “Beyond Her Book”.  In the post, “Reading the Book: A Novel Approach to Reviewing”, (http://www.publishersweekly.com/blog/880000288/post/460020646.html), Vey says she doesn’t read reviews because she wants to make up her own mind. 

I love to read reviews, especially since most books have more than one review and usually they don’t agree with each other!  For instance, why did ”Soul Patch” by Reed Farrel Coleman get an Edgar nomination, but a lukewarm review from Publisher’s Weekly?  What’s the scoop?  I guess I’ll have to read it to find out who’s got the better nose for good books - the Edgar nominee committee or the reviewer at Publisher’s Weekly?

Vey’s post also mentions that Harriet Klausner is the number one “lay” reviewer for Amazon.com, posting ”45 reviews a week”.  Vey wonders if it’s possible to read that many per week.  I’ve never noticed Klausner’s reviews, so I don’t know how influential they are.  It would be interesting to see if she’s really reading the books or if she was a major consultant for Pierre Bayard’s “How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read”! 

In his blog “Bokardo”, Joshua Porter explores Klausner in this post: http://bokardo.com/archives/is-harriet-klausner-for-real/.  He has interesting information on her, such as the ratings she gets for her reviews.  It gives you a lot to think about.

Tags: Books, Edgar nominees, mysteries, reviews