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Friday, April 6, 2012

Follow Friday - Charlton Heston and David Niven Kicked Ass in 55 Days in Peking


It's Friday again, and this means it's time for Follow Friday. There has been a slight change to the format, as now there are two Follow Friday hosts blogs and two Follow Friday Features Bloggers each week. To join the fun and make now book blogger friends, just follow these simple rules:
  1. Follow both of the Follow My Book Blog Friday Hosts (Parajunkee and Alison Can Read) and any one else you want to follow on the list.
  2. Follow the two Featured Bloggers of the week - The Romanceaholic and The Talking Teacup.
  3. Put your Blog name and URL in the Linky thing.
  4. Grab the button up there and place it in a post, this post is for people to find a place to say hi in your comments.
  5. Follow, follow, follow as many as you can, as many as you want, or just follow a few. The whole point is to make new friends and find new blogs. Also, don't just follow, comment and say hi. Another blogger might not know you are a new follower if you don't say "Hi".
  6. If someone comments and says they are following you, be a dear and follow back. Spread the love . . . and the followers.
  7. If you want to show the link list, just follow the link below the entries and copy and paste it within your post!
  8. If you're new to the Follow Friday Hop, comment and let me know, so I can stop by and check out your blog!
And now for the Follow Friday Question: Have you ever bought a book BECAUSE of a bad review?

This may seem like an odd thing for someone who writes lots of reviews to say, but I don't usually read reviews before reading a book. I have had subscriptions to Analog, Asimov's, and Fantasy & Science Fiction for years, and all have book reviews (actually, F&SF has several regular review features). And I try to read them every month. I really do. I follow a lot of other book bloggers, and I try to go around and read their material. But I always get in the middle of a review and get lost, unable to sort out what is supposed to be going on that makes the book good or not. Eventually, I go cross-eyed and give up. So I don't really know if it would be accurate to say I've ever sought out a specific book based on a review either good or bad. Maybe I have, but I don't recall.

I don't have anything against reviews (obviously), and I'm not trying to make some sort of hipster statement about being beyond being influenced, I'm just saying that for some reason I am not very good at reading the sort of stuff that I spend my time writing. At least before I read a book or watch a movie or television show. After I've read a book or consumed some other media, I love reading reviews of the book I read or the movie I watched. I don't know why I like reading reviews after I've read a book, I just do.

Yeah, I know. I'm odd. You're not the first to notice.


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13 comments:

  1. UnknownApril 6, 2012 at 1:53 AM

    To be honest, I don't think you're odd at all. Actually, I think you're doing the smart thing. This way your opinion can't be influenced by somebody else's thoughts. I hate it when I read a negative review and get disappointed of the book before I've read a single line of it. It isn't fair toward the author, the book, or yourself :) And yet, we must write the reviews LOL

    Stop by my Follow Friday post!

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownApril 6, 2012 at 2:15 AM

    Best to always try something yourself before giving up on the book. New follower :)
    http://www.fictionflaire.blospot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousApril 6, 2012 at 4:20 AM

    Hi there :) just hopping through... I like to form my own opinion regardless of others views.

    Here is my choice...

    Feature & Follow

    ReplyDelete
  4. Mel@ThedailyprophecyApril 6, 2012 at 8:00 AM

    I think it's actually a very smart thing to do :) I try always to judge by the synopsis, but sometimes I do feel the influence of bad reviews.

    http://thedailyprophecy.blogspot.com/2012/04/feature-follow-1.html#comment-form

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  5. JamieApril 6, 2012 at 8:33 AM

    Good answer! Sometimes, I stay away from reviews, too, because I don't want to be influenced.

    New follower!

    Here's our FF

    Jamie@Addicted2Heroines

    ReplyDelete
  6. Aaron PoundApril 7, 2012 at 1:13 AM

    @Vanya D.: The thing that is odd isn't that I don't read reviews before I read a book. The thing that is odd is that I would if I could read them, but I can't.

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  7. Aaron PoundApril 7, 2012 at 1:34 AM

    @Varsha Dinesh: I have never given up on a book - I always finish them, no matter how bad.

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  8. Aaron PoundApril 7, 2012 at 1:36 AM

    @Book Slave: Forming my own opinion isn't ever a problem for me. Some people I know say I am just a little too opinionated.

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  9. Aaron PoundApril 7, 2012 at 1:48 AM

    @Mel - Thedailyprophecy: It may be smart, but I can't claim credit because I don't avoid reviews by design.

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  10. Aaron PoundApril 7, 2012 at 2:00 AM

    @Jamie: Even though I'm not usually able to read reviews before I read a book, I sometimes read reviews after I've read a book but before I've finished writing my own. I find I often disagree with other reviewers on some points, and that it sharpens my own review.

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  11. PatriciaApril 7, 2012 at 4:45 AM

    Wow, I'm impressed! I never manage not to read a few reviews before I buy a book! *g*

    Patricia // My FF

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  12. Aaron PoundApril 7, 2012 at 8:41 PM

    @Patricia: I am addicted to buying books. If I tried to read reviews for all of the books I buy I'd never do anything but read reviews.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Aaron PoundApril 7, 2012 at 9:53 PM

    @Rachel Cotterill: Nice to meet you too!

    ReplyDelete