r/books discussion

I have a review of The Burgess Boys by Strout that is nothing special, yet it continues to get likes and comments. I still don't know why. Anyway, it got me to thinking. What is your most popular review, or which do you think is your best? Post the link here so we can revel in your cleverness and witty opinions :)

I reviewed Robots Will Steal Your Job, But That's OK: How to Survive the Economic Collapse and Be Happy finishing with the sentence:

...it still feels like the book is in dire need of an editor - one job which is perhaps safe from the robots for now!

I'm not very witty... also you didn't post a link to yours!

The only review I have that even has a single like is my scrolls of Xavier review I posted to this group a while back. I was the first one to review it on Goodreads and after seeing everyone sugarcoat their reviews and always be positive I decided to be a bit harsh. Hopefully it helped as I still believe the book needs work.

Haha your first and only like was me! I feel honored :) both of those reviews were interesting... I will post mine once I get on a computer.

So here is my review of the Burgess Boys by Strout... I assume it got a lot of reads and likes because I was one of the first to review... or I assume I must have been. It wasn't a terribly clever review.

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

And not-terribly-clever me doesn't know how to turn words into links like on Reddit....

Thanks for that! Haha. Audible people seem to appreciate my reviews a bit more. I'll see I'd I can post to one of them when I'm using a computer.

You use the html tags to do it - it says how on the (some html is ok) bit if you hover over it.

Reddit uses markdown which is a different markup language.

Those reviews were both amusing though! I just reviewed Beyond Boundaries: The New Neuroscience of Connecting Brains with Machines and How It Will Change Our Lives today. You can read the review here.

It was a very good book, although quite technical in places, it had some very brave and visionary ideas - worth noting that Prof. Nicolelis is the world expert in the field of Brain-Machine Interfaces and is still an active researcher so I was surprised at how unconventional some of his ideas were. (It would be less surprising were it the ravings of a crank or retired professor)

Yeah, I was just being lazy in getting the link, but conveniently enough that is exactly what I was going to do now! Here is my review of Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence. It was one of my first audible books. Bought it on sale and it immediately got me into reading fantasy books. The narrator is also so great that I am considering getting the last one in audio format as well.

I review books sometimes. No rhyme or reason to which books I choose to review, sometimes they're good, sometimes they're bad. I wrote a review for a book from a tv series that still gets some hits once in a while, but it wasn't super popular so probably not a lot of people know about the books.

I try to be fair and talk about what I liked and disliked, and not give away too much of the story. One mans trash in another mans treasure and that, if someone reads my review to make a decision I at least want to paint an accurate portrait of what I got out of it.

I do the same. For my 100 books on goodreads (just passed that milestone last week!) I think I have <10 reviews. It all depends if I'm in a reviewing kinda mood. But I always make it a point to review books that I win or am given by authors as soon as possible.

It isn't popular but I just saw that the author actually liked my review! http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

I actually got super stoked seeing that just now, even though I've talked with Mr. Lawrence through email and reddit, it is still awesome to see that he liked my short addressing of his book's controversy! Dang, now I might have to read it again just to make the review longer!

That's so cool! Also, it sort of made me want to read it. I love violence in books, can't say why.

You should! I really enjoyed it and it did get me to read more fiction and fantasy at that. And violence? The main character contemplates killing just about everyone he talks to.

On top of that, the final one in the series just came out. I just received my signed copy today! Mark just doesn't quit making my book-day!

Edit to add: Just remember, Mark is not his character! He is a good guy, I swear!

I agree with Jennifer, it also made me want to read it. But isn't that the point of a book review, to make people want to read it? That might be the difference between a popular review and one overlooked. OH and I hate reviews that summarize!

I suck at writing reviews, partly because I'm not an English native speaker (understanding a language and actually using it are clearly two very different things *sigh*), and partly because... well, I'm just not good at it. I can't transfer my thoughts into coherent text.

My fangirlish review for Alastair Reynolds' House of Suns surprisingly got 6 likes.
The one I like best, The Complete Calvin & Hobbes, is even fangirlisher, but C&H is just something I love unconditionally, and I had to express that appropriately.
I enjoyed, in a twisted way, writing the review for The Final Empire, which I didn't like all that much. It just felt good to vent about the main character.

Mine is about Generation X, though I think it's only because it goes a bit against the grain, since I absolutely hated that book!

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...