Shiny or Dust Bunny Reviews?

DiscussionAfter reading the H&H post, The Review-Reading Unicorn,  I have to ask – do you like seeing reviews on novels that are older than 2 months? What about books that are 2 years old? Do you prefer the new or the backlist?

I have to say, I very much prefer the reviews for older books.  There tend to be tons of reviews for the latest and greatest that it gets a little daunting.  River Marked by Patricia Briggs just came out – how many reviews have you seen already?  What about Shadowfever by Karen Marie Moning?  Heaven forbid, you know there is going to be a storm of activity when the next Laurell K Hamilton novel, Hit List, comes out.  I know that when I go to my reader, I get a little tired of seeing the same novel being reviewed over and over again.

That’s actually the reason why, when I have an ARC and I don’t get the review published by the release date, you won’t see the review for a month or two.  When I can see the same novel being reviewed over and over within a short time span, it can actually turn me off.  In fact, it has done that and I have never picked up that author because she was everywhere within just a few days.  So I don’t like to contribute to the melee that occurs around a release date.  I’ll wait a month before posting my review, sometimes even two.  The way I look at it, it’s a win/win situation for both LE and the author.  By waiting, my review doesn’t get lost among the dozens that are out there, so more people will see it, and the author gets attention longer.

I mean, how many people remember that The Horns of Ruin by Tim Akers, Enemy Within by Marcella Burnard, Magic at the Gate by Devon Monk and Vicious Grace by MLN Hanover all came out in November?  When was the last time you saw a review for them?  How many of you were just reminded that you were going to get your hands on them and haven’t yet?

So I’m very much a reader who likes, if not prefers, to see reviews on novels that haven’t been published recently.  What about everyone else?  What do you prefer?  Has seeing reviews from a not-so-recently published novel sparked your interest?

About Jackie 3282 Articles
I am a 30-something SAHM with two adorable boys and a supportive husband who is very tolerant of my reading addiction. I love to read and easily go through about a dozen books a month – well I did before I had kids. Now, not so much. After my first son was born, I began to take my hobby of reviewing a little more serious and started Literary Escapism to help with my sanity. I love to discuss the fabulous novels I’ve read and meeting all the wonderful people in the book blogging community has been amazing.

10 Comments

  1. I like reviews that come out after the book. Sometimes I don’t remember that a certain book came out and that reminds me. I also like when some reviewers post a review of a retro book that came out several years ago. I’ve found several books that I had never heard of that way.

  2. I also like reviews that come out after… It’s a reminder, as you’ve mentioned, but it also lets me go get my hands on ’em if I was interested, instead of putting it on a to-get list.

    That’s for reading ’em. For writing ’em, I do what the publisher or publicist asks… :)

  3. If you (generic you) reviewed old and new books, I wouldn’t care either way. But if you can only review so many books – and most generic yous have some limitation on how many reviews they can do – I want to know about the books I otherwise wouldn’t know about.

    For the same reason, I love to see reviews of smaller authors, especially the $1.99 eBook stuff. I’ve found some wonderful things just browsing Amazon’s Kindle store, but I’ve also found a lot of … not so wonderful stuff.

    Anything that points me towards more things to read is good.

  4. I like reading reviews of the old books – it’s easy to find out about the latest releases but there are a lot of old treasures out there that aren’t given their just due. It’s always nice to see some older books reviewed – in fact some of my most read reviews are actually for older books!

  5. I like book reviews for older titles because they sometimes turn me on to a series I hadn’t heard of before. Or maybe I’ve heard of the series, but hadn’t picked up book one yet for whatever reason.

    On my blog, I review whatever I read. I try to read at least two titles a month that are over a year old. This is more for me, because I know I can’t read books as fast as I buy them.

    I also like the idea of reviewing book one in a series right before book two comes out (or book 2 right before book 3, etc). I’ll have a book lying around for months, and I won’t realize how long it’s been since I bought it until the next in the series is about to come out. So a lot of times, I’ll pick it up so that I know whether or not I wanna buy the next one when it comes out. (I have a bad habit of buying multiple books in a series before I even know if I like book one, and I’m trying to curb this habit.)

  6. I actually read a wide selection of both old and new books so that is what I review on my blog. I’ve been reading more newer releases since I started blogging (because those are the ones that tend to get sent for review) but it can get boring when everyone is reviewing the same titles at the same time. For me I love seeing a review for an old favorite or discovering a series / book I’ve never heard of before.

  7. I can see both sides. On one hand, reviewing newer books is kind of like perpetural motion. The review generates more buzz for your blog because the book itself is generating a lot of buzz. It’s fun to keep up with new releases.

    On the other hand, it isn’t fair to see good older books have to fall by the wayside just because some new thing has a release date.

    I try to balance things. I read and review ARCs when I get them, and try to stay as up to date as I can with books and series that I like, but I also keep an eye on books from the past, sometimes decades ago, because I know that just because something’s new doesn’t mean it’s better, and when there’s an old book that I love, I want to spread the word and let other people know why I love it, not just let it languish because it’s 15 years old.

  8. looks like I’m in good company – I read & review new & old stuff. recently it’s been more new stuff, because that’s the stuff publishers mail me. but tucked into my “to be read” pile is stuff from last year, stuff from 5 years ago, stuff that’s 20 years old. And two brand spankin’ new titles.

    I appreciate reviews of older stuff, becuase it’s usually a book or at least an author I’ve heard of, and we can get into all sorts of wonderful discussions in the comments about when we discovered the author, and other things they’ve written. . . . nothing tastes better than nostalgia, you know?

  9. I only get all my literary review-y goodness from here, so I don’t really mind if it’s a recent review or not, but I can see how it’d be annoying to other people who follow multiple websites, you must feel as if you’ve read the book before you’ve even got it sometimes! It’s the same with movies and too many ads/trailers.

    I like older book reviews just as much as good ones, the older ones are sometimes easier to get hold of, especially if it isn’t yet available in the UK – we seem get everything months later! And then sometimes I forget, although now I have actually have gone so far as to make an Excel spreadsheet as to what authors I need to check out and of what books I need to buy. (I’m kind of a geek if you hadn’t noticed! lol)

    I love this site for reviews, and there are pro’s and con’s to both, but at the end of the day, it’s more books for me to read, so i’m happy either way!
    Lol. :)

  10. I asked this same question a week or two ago because while I do review a handful ARC’s the majority of the books I read are older titles, or new indies, simply because I read what I get my hands on and I choose according to what I want to read, not what my blog followers want to read.
    I know that blogs that review every new release tend to get the most attention but I have resolved to not worry about it, that’s not why I blog (though of course I appreciate those that are interested)
    I’ve noticed too in the rss reader when 6 or 7 posts in a row are reviewing the same book, I tend to skip over most of them.

    Shelleyrae @ Book’d Out
    http://www.bookdout.wordpress.com

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