Crime Detective Mystery Thriller Group discussion

It's very disappointing to see more newspapers drop their book review section. Do you have any new sources for book reviews?

I have met so many wonderful people on Good reads; they are a great sources for book reviews. I tend to stick with favorite authors, but now I am beginning to read others.

I agree with you, Skye. I never read book reviews, just like I never pay attention to movie reviews. I look at what my friends are reading because I know they read books similar to what I like to read. Often times I like a book (or movie) that many others didn't like. If I want to read a book I will usually look and see if any of my friends have read it when I try to decide what I'm going to read next. Other than that, I use my own judgement. After reading so many books, you can kind of tell . . . I will always read the next book in a series that I like, or read the new book that one of my favorite authors has written.

I like Andrew Taylor's reviews in the Spectator.

I get newsletters from publishers of those genres I enjoy.
I like book reviews, and like many, I find my opinion differs. However, if you subscribe to the opinion that there is no point in reading them because you always disagree, well then, it is very simple, you don't bother to read them!
Mind you, then you would never know if your opinion is in accordance with others or not

Often what some readers hate is what I love - Gillian Flynn's Sharp Objects is one.

Ron wrote: "It's very disappointing to see more newspapers drop their book review section. Do you have any new sources for book reviews?"

Wow, and I mean wow, that is so seriously last century! Given the non-information newspapers provided me, I stopped reading them when I moved in my current flat (1998) and would have had to pay for them myself.
Sometimes I picked one up, when a certain event or headline grabbed my attention, only to be disappointed again. Read the Financial Times a few times, during the time it was published in German-language for Germany, that was tailored to some of my needs, but while I can understand buying a weekly or monthly special magazine (had a Compute!-subscription a few years), a Newspaper just does not cut it, since way back then.
Being a news-junkie, and keeping well informed, I will not support a daily newspaper which does not inform me of things which interest me.

Regarding books, I thought about buying a magazine about book-reviews, but they cost me more, than they are worth, and I rather spend the money on books, than on reviews.

For books I almost never relied on newspapers or even weekly magazines.
In my youth I checked out a lot from the local library, just because the books looked interesting for the genre it was supposed to be, mostly I read authors I had read before or books somebody recommended me. Exchanging books with family and close friends also helped finding new authors.

I used computers and message boards early (since 1986/7), newsgroups, if you remember them, Compuserve. There where groups around SF, Fantasy, TrueCrime (and others) which discussed books and brought me to many new writers.

But these sources for recommendations and reviews I are not new to me, having used them more than 20 years.
The quality of book reviews in Newspaper was bad for my taste last century, and are mostly bad when I try to check them again nowadays (with rare exceptions, where they review a book I want to read and know all about before I read the review, which does not help me at all). The number of reviews was also too little for me, if there where 10 reviews every day, I would have found something which helped me once a week, but as it was, too little.

The web provides now most, if not all the sources for book reviews, sometimes I look for the source of a good film/tv-show (IMDB), wether it is based on a book. I look in films what books are lying around and check them out here on Goodreads and elsewhere on the web, if they look interesting.

And nowadays I check Goodreads throughly, when I want to read a book where I do not know the writer, I look for the reviews which are 1 or 2 stars, these are more reliable for going against the majority opinion and help me in deciding wether to buy a book or not - and even then I want to buy a book I try to wait till it is cheap or free as a promo, I do not like to pay above 8 Us$ for some unknown (to me) or 14 Us$ for a writer I read before and liked.

For writers I read or want to read everything, I set an author alarm(follow the link) and do the same at Amazon.Com, and some I also follow on Goodreads or per Mail-Newsletter.
And like other I have some Mail-Newsletters from Publishers, Bookbub (Bargain books), Dead Good Books and some writers.

Given that, I decided that a book has to grab me in the first 30%, if not not, I do not finish it. Some I take a break from, some I abandon entirely.

Given that, I read a lot, I like reading about books a lot, and so spend a lot time I could read a book here on Goodreads and will stop my comment now.

@Bill: Sharp Objects is still on my TBR (as is Gone Girl), and I guess I will like it.

Aside from recommendations on Goodreads, I go to my local library and see what's on the "New Book" shelf.

Ingo wrote: "Ron wrote: "It's very disappointing to see more newspapers drop their book review section. Do you have any new sources for book reviews?"

Wow, and I mean wow, that is so seriously last century! G..."

Well, I hope you will recommend some books to me Ingo.

We have a paper called the Metro (Philadelphia Area) when every Friday they have a list of recommended reads. I believe Philadelphia Magazine still have reviews along with some women magazines. I personally look up NY Times Best Sellers and I get Tweets from publishers and book stores but my favorite is coming on Goodreads to see what my friends have recommended to me.

I never read newspaper reviews. I read the back cover and on a new author I would read a page or 2. Now I how many stars a reader has. Read both the best review and the worst one. This works for me.

I have an example of my feelings on reviews. I normally read a book, then rate and review it on Goodreads. After that, I look down through some of the other reviews to see what others thought and it often is the opposite of my feelings. I just finished Zoo by James Patterson and I loved it, something completely different from his normal books. After I rated and reviewed it, I noticed that most of the reviews were one and two stars. Had I noticed this to begin with, I may not have read it, but I'm so glad that I did. That's why I like to wait until afterward unless a friend recommends one to me.