Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Do You Post Book Reviews?

by KATE FALL on MAY 24, 2009

About a year ago, I discovered the customer reviews on Amazon for Tuscan milk. It is an incredibly funny example of Web 2.0 creative writing: people from all over the world leaving their flash fiction and poetry about milk. http://www.amazon.com/Tuscan-Whole-Milk-Gallon-128/dp/B00032G1S0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=grocery&qid=1243182463&sr=8-1 Lately I think that’s been topped. A friend sent me a link to the Amazon reviews for the Three Moon Wolf shirt. http://www.amazon.com/Three-T-Shirt-Available-Various-Sizes/dp/B000NZW3IY/ref=pd_sbs_gro_1

As hysterical as these “customer reviews” are, they demonstrate the perversiveness of people who leave customer reviews. That’s a good reminder for book reviews. The idea behind a review isn’t always to get people to read a book; sometimes it’s to get people to laugh at the review.

I love to recommend books to people. There are few things I enjoy more than talking about books I’ve read. I never leave Amazon or B&N site reviews though and I’m not sure why. I think it is a good exercise to write down why I like or dislike a book.

For a while, I tried writing my reviews in a journal. That didn’t last. Then I tried typing them on LiveJournal. I couldn’t keep up with that either. Now I’m logging books I’ve read on Facebook. That seems to work better for me in that the reviews I write are much shorter and I feel like they’re somewhere that people I know will read them. But I’m not sure what I learn from writing them since they’re so short.

Do you post book reviews anywhere? Do you like reading them? Writing them? I’d love to get other people’s input while I’m figuring out how to spend my time on this.

– Kate

{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }

beth 05.24.09 at 2:13 pm

I love reviews. I try to post them on my blog, but I’ve found that Goodreads is by far the simplest way.

Christina Farley 05.24.09 at 9:33 pm

Yeah, no I don’t. I wish I did reviews though. Does that count for something? :)

I did subscribe to Shelfari on my blog. There I can click on books that I’ve read and I can star them or write something about them if I want to. It’s so easy once it’s set up and I find it interesting to just glance over the books that I’ve read because it helps me see what I’m actually reading. I really try to read a variety of literature because I think it’s important.

Kate 05.25.09 at 6:50 pm

Very interesting, Beth and Christy! I think I set up Goodreads a long time ago. I wonder if I still remember my password?

Debbie Ridpath Ohi 05.28.09 at 10:54 am

I post book reviews sometimes, but usually only if I enjoy the book. Hm…I’m on Goodreads, too; I should dig up my password as well. :-)

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