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  1. Bob Calverley
    July 24, 2021 @ 8:16 pm

    1 – Most of the time I don’t review the books I read. The exceptions are usually books written by friends. I will do an honest review unless it’s going to be less than three stars. I’ll also review books that really impressed me with how good they were, especially if the book’s by a writer with whom I am unfamiliar. Once in awhile I’ll do a negative review, usually about a book from a bestselling author who phoned it in.

    2 – That’s tough, but yes, sometimes I do ask for reviews.

    3 – Yes I usually read a few reviews. Once in awhile, negative reviews persuade me to buy a book.

    4 – Lack of reviews bothers me more than negative reviews. No reviews means nobody’s buying the book.

    I find the reviews posted by readers on Amazon and Goodreads far more meaningful than reviews in the New York Times, the LA Times or Wall Street Journal, etc. I’ve often been misled by literary critics. One year I bought the book that won the top prize at the LA Times Festival of Books, a book that had received uniformly good reviews from critics. It was awful and I couldn’t finish. The author’s previous book had been great but this one was repetitive, boring, devoid of originality and full of some the worst gratuitous violence I’ve ever read.

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