This weekly meme was started by @Lauren’s Page Turners. It is now being hosted by Budget Tales Book Blog. To participate, choose a random book from your GoodReads TBR and show it off. Which sounds easy enough until you have to decide how to choose that book! I think I will use a different way each week, like picking a color or number of pages. I will let you know each week how I chose the book and then something interesting about it, like how it ended up on the list or why I want to read it. Got it? Okay let’s get started.
A couple of weeks ago I chose the book with the highest rating on my To Read List. So, I thought it might be fun to see which book had the lowest rating. I then became curious about the stats on this one and why it got such a low rating. If you want to see my post about my highest rated book go to this post.
Confessions of a Curious Bookseller by Elizabeth Green
Publication Date: January 1, 2021
Summary from Goodreads:
Without question, Fawn Birchill knows that her used bookstore is the heart of West Philadelphia, a cornerstone of culture for a community that, for the past twenty years, has found the quirkiness absolutely charming. When an amicable young indie bookseller invades her block, Fawn is convinced that his cushy couches, impressive selection, coffee bar, and knowledgeable staff are a neighborhood blight. Misguided yet blindly resilient, Fawn readies for battle.
But as she wages her war, Fawn is forced to reflect on a few unavoidable truths: the tribulations of online dating, a strained relationship with her family, and a devoted if not always law-abiding intern—not to mention what to do about a pen pal with whom she hasn’t been entirely honest and the litany of repairs her aging store requires.
Through emails, journal entries, combative online reviews, texts, and tweets, Fawn plans her next move. Now it’s time for her to dig deep and use every trick at her disposal if she’s to reclaim her beloved business—and her life.
I can’t remember how this book got on my radar, it was probably the cute title or even the cover. The summary also still sounds pretty good to me, even with the low ratings. But let’s pause for a minute and look at those ratings…
A lot of people have reviewed and even more gave it a rating, but look how it all lays out. Most people at least liked it (3 stars) and a decent number really liked or loved it, but the really high number of 1 and 2 star ratings is what killed it for this book. When I am trying to decide if I want to read a book or add it to my TBR, I generally look at a wide variety of the reviews. I do this to see why people loved it as well as hated it. Their issues with a book might end up being mine, so I am trying to save myself the time and grief.
What I have deduced from looking at the reviews is that the people who didn’t like it were not crazy about the format, which I agree can be done wrong or hard to follow even when done right. They also found the main character, Fawn, unlikable. Those who loved it liked the quirky Fawn, but also go on to say that the summary and cover are very misleading and that this is a much darker book than one would expect.
So after weighing the pros and cons of this book I find myself wondering if I will ever read it. I did find one review, this one by Julia, that really makes me want to at least give this one a shot. I might check a sample on Kindle and see what I think before plunging right in.
Confessions of a Serial Reader 