Book Blogger Hop

The Book Blogger Hop was originally created by Jennifer @ Crazy-For-Books in March 2010 and ended on December 31, 2012. It was relaunched on February 15, 2013 by Billy@Coffee Addicted Writer. Each week the hop will start on a Friday and end the following Thursday. There will be a weekly prompt featuring a book related question. The hop’s purpose is to give bloggers a chance to follow other blogs, learn about new books, befriend other bloggers, and receive new followers to your own blog. 

This week’s topic is:

What is your go-to website to check out book reviews?(submitted by Elizabeth @ Silver’s Reviews)

As a school librarian I have many resources at my disposal that many people are not aware of, School Library Journal, Horn Book, Publishers Weekly to name a few. I use these mainly for the purposes of deciding which books to add to my library. I occasionally use them for personal reading, but mostly for the YA books.

For my personal reading, I tend to only look at Goodreads and NetGalley for reviews. I look at both before choosing an ARC on NetGalley, but also after a book is published as well. I also tend to look at a wide variety of reviews, meaning I don’t just read the 4 and 5 star ones. I like to look at what people didn’t like about the book, because that might be a reason I won’t like it as well. I especially will scrutinize the NetGalley reviews before choosing to request a book. I find that helps me keep from just choosing a book for its cover or because the summary sounds good. This sometimes backfires on me as I end up not choosing something that I end up reading later and loving.

I have started using Storygraph this year, but I am not as good at going to it to look at reviews. I find it a bit cumbersome to use at times, but I promised myself that I would use it for six months before making a final decision about it. I sort of like how their reviews are set up, but I also find their choices limiting and not always how I feel about the book. I really like their stats and star system though which is why I haven’t given up on them yet.

Of course I always depend on all of you book bloggers for reviews as well. I have found many good books through all of you and I appreciate you all for taking the time to write them.