3 ms·

I’m interested to hear what value HN folks have in book reviews from strangers. I thought the value in something like Goodreads would be to create a community o

by bhpm 3y ago

I’m interested to hear what value HN folks have in book reviews from strangers. I thought the value in something like Goodreads would be to create a community of people you know IRL to share what you read. I don’t see myself having much in common with a bunch of people I don’t know.

fragmede 3y ago
That's an interesting perspective. A total stranger has gone much of the same trials and tribulations as me, simply due to the fact that they're human, and alive at the same time. Being born, how to eat, how to afford to eat. If you know someone IRL, you don't magically have something in common with them that you didn't before. A stranger might be born in a foreign country so we don't have that in common. After I get to know them and become friends IRL, we're still not going to have that in common. So the idea that you don't have anything in common with people you don't know seems weird to me because of course you have things in common, you just haven't discovered them yet. Is a book review by John Updike at all useful to me? I didn't go to Harvard and don't have that in common with him, so why would I value his book review?
therealdrag0 3y ago
For me the main value of reviews, kinda like ChatGPT, is a vague summarization. I read a few high rated ones and a few low rated ones and you can kinda tell based on what the reviews focus on is this the kinda book I’m likely to like? Do the negative reviews focus on SJW topic I don’t care about? Do the negative reviews focus on opinions or do they focus on evaluating expertise/facts? do the positive reviews focus on world-building, writing, quality, or characters; what do they like about it? What do they compare it to? Sometimes I do this when I’m 10 or 20% into a book and I’m trying to evaluate if I care enough to continue. I’ll see if other reviewers say the book picks up or slows down etc.

by bhpm 3y ago

fragmede 3y ago

That's an interesting perspective. A total stranger has gone much of the same trials and tribulations as me, simply due to the fact that they're human, and alive at the same time. Being born, how to eat, how to afford to eat. If you know someone IRL, you don't magically have something in common with them that you didn't before. A stranger might be born in a foreign country so we don't have that in common. After I get to know them and become friends IRL, we're still not going to have that in common. So the idea that you don't have anything in common with people you don't know seems weird to me because of course you have things in common, you just haven't discovered them yet. Is a book review by John Updike at all useful to me? I didn't go to Harvard and don't have that in common with him, so why would I value his book review?

therealdrag0 3y ago

For me the main value of reviews, kinda like ChatGPT, is a vague summarization. I read a few high rated ones and a few low rated ones and you can kinda tell based on what the reviews focus on is this the kinda book I’m likely to like? Do the negative reviews focus on SJW topic I don’t care about? Do the negative reviews focus on opinions or do they focus on evaluating expertise/facts? do the positive reviews focus on world-building, writing, quality, or characters; what do they like about it? What do they compare it to? Sometimes I do this when I’m 10 or 20% into a book and I’m trying to evaluate if I care enough to continue. I’ll see if other reviewers say the book picks up or slows down etc.