Do you read other people's reviews before writing your own?

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Mailis
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Re: Do you read other people's reviews before writing your own?

Post by Mailis »

I read other people reviews before I choose a book to read. I don't read them to do my reviews, that comes usually based from emotion I get from reading the book.
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Arrigo_Lupori
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Post by Arrigo_Lupori »

I've only written a voluntary review so far, so I don't have as much experience as some of you do, but I'd rather not. Mainly because I want my opinion to be as real as it can be. I don't want to be influenced by "Top Reviewers" who gave it a 4 out of 4, where I wanted to give the book a 2 out of 4. I think that is why the website looks for a wider variety of people to review the books as well, since we can all give input using our own minds.
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Post by Idyll »

I am here for the discipline of reading and evaluating books, and I am with those who don't read other's reviews before writing mine. I'm a tough editor too -- just rated my first book 2/4 and I was the only one to be so low. Yeah, felt weird. I feel strongly that technical mistakes can really ruin a book though, and an obligation to point them out.
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Post by Camille Turner »

No, in fact, I have a policy to NEVER read other people's reviews before writing mine. Personally, I feel it keeps both my thoughts about the book and my review itself 100% original and non-bias. Otherwise, I may think I'm writing how I feel but the other reviews could have subconsciously influenced me.
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Post by holsam_87 »

I also prefer to write my reviews without any outside influences. When commenting on the official reviews, I like to look at other people's comments so that I can see what others took away from the book and how they interpreted important parts.
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Post by mamalui »

I usually read other people's reviews before I write my own but mainly so I can improve my own writing.
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Post by kfwilson6 »

I might read one or two before writing my own. I like to make my summary of the book quite different than the one on Amazon or what anyone else wrote. The opinion portion I like to read after I've completed mine to see how other people's opinions compared to mine.
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Post by Jfoust1988 »

I do but it's not what you think. I tend to view reviews before reading a book. So in a sense yes but no. Then as I read the book and take notes. Then use those notes to write my own review and post it.
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Post by Aisha91 »

I prefer finishing my own review before I get to read others review. Otherwise it affects my point of view and feedback and oftentimes creates confusion.
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Post by seymmarc »

I feel like reading other's reviews would leave too much of an impression on me and I'd change my review accordingly. I'll read the other reviews after I complete mine to see how others reacted to the book. On the other hand, I have read reviews for different books to get inspiration on how to format mine and other things I can comment on to make the review better.
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Post by Kolig595 »

I prefer writing my own first based off my own reflection and opinion. I would rather use the ideas and memories from the book that I recall to use to reflect in my review than reading others first.
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Post by todwyer01 »

It truly depends on the book or the topic. It is like watching a youtube video. If the ratings are so horrible, there is a tendency to watch the video anyway just to see what people are thinking. The same with books. However, when it comes to a novel, I will just read it even if I do not have time.
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Post by Jesscar6 »

I write my review as I'm reading it. Then before I post it I sometimes see what other people thought of it.
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Post by DancingLady »

It really depends on the book. Once in a while I read something that I struggle to remember clearly and then I will check for other reviews just to help jog my memory. If a book is written in a way that leaves me with some confusion or foggy memory of a section I want to make sure I can mention this. Usually I don’t read other reviews because it doesn’t really matter. My review is my personal opinion and it can be very different from someone else.
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Post by Ajbish »

I'm currently reading the first book I'll review and have already read others'. The way I look at it is- there's a good bit of options for people to pick from (at least the volunteer ones) and I want to add more than what's already been done. Not to 'be different' for the sake of being different, yet to add another layer that hasn't been touched upon. I'm obviously going to rate it how I would normally but take into consideration themes, characters, points of the story, etc. that haven't been overly talked about. For instance, the book I'm doing has to deal with timeline/planet/plane jumps and while the reviews mention this I haven't come across one that fully attempts to elaborate on it. Also, while there are many main characters there is only one that really pops up.
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