Week 5 Prompt Response

      I believe Ebooks deserve to be reviewed just as much as printed books.  I also believe all books should be review the same no matter if the author is a big name writer or not.   I think if a book gets more reviews the library collections is going to buy that book before the lesser known book.  I think the person(s) doing the collection development needs to be careful not to get heavy into one specific genre.  So they need to be reading or looking at several different review sources.
     A blog review and an Amazon review can both be reliable.  I believe when someone takes the time to sit down and write how they feel about something - in this case a book - they are going to be truthful.  I think these reviews can give the librarian an idea of what a library patron will think of the book when they read it.  If I was looking for this genre of book to add to my collection I'd probably buy it.
     Just by reading the reviews about Angela Ashes, makes me think this would be a book I personally wouldn't enjoy.  However that being said, the reviews did say it is a book for all ages, so I'm thinking it'll have appeal to a wide range of people.  I did look up some reviews on GoodRead and found most people gave it a favorable rating.  There were a couple not so favorable, but that's to be expected because not everyone likes the same books.  I would probably add this book to the library collections well.
     I don't think it's fair that one type of book gets reviewed to death and another type gets no coverage.   I believe if a librarian is not too careful in building the collection and only goes with books that get covered, the collection will soon become too heavy in the covered genres while other genres may slip into nothingness.  I think places that print reviews need to give equal billing to both the positive and negative reviews.  Not everyone likes the same books.  As for myself I need the two review types to get a better idea of what a book may really be like before I read it.  I don't buy books for the library.  For my personal reading reviews I like GoodRead, Amazon, and BookPage.  I don't put a lot of stock into reviews, but I like to read them to see what other people think.