Hey,
The other day I was reading a post, that Michelle from Book Adventures made, called Ramblings | Do you read reviews before or after you’ve read the book? and it really got me thinking about starting to read more reviews before I read a book.
I am the kind of person who reads a review after I’ve read the novel. I do this to avoid spoilers and high/low expectations. I found this has overall been a good thing, but in some cases it’s helped me waste time on books I really didn’t like.
A book I read that not reading a review was a good thing was We Were Liars by E Lockhart. I was told not to read anything on this novel as it’s best to go into it blind and I am so grateful I followed their advice. This book, if you haven’t read it I highly recommend it, is truly best read when you know nothing about it.
However not reading a review hasn’t always worked in my favour. I know a lot of people don’t usually have a review on their blog/youtube channel if they didn’t enjoy the novel. But I find that on Goodreads people say if they did on didn’t enjoy a novel, if a novel is good or not is usually indicated by the amount of stars it has or the reviews. I start quite a few books but never finish them as I didn’t enjoy them, and I know I probably could’ve been reading something I enjoyed instead of something I didn’t if I’d had checked out a review or at least how many stars it had on Goodreads.
Given all the points I just made the reason why I don’t read reviews before I read a book is because of spoilers. A lot of reviews I see, don’t say spoiler free or full review (meaning there is spoilers) I personally will read a review if it says spoiler free as I hate being spoiled. On my blog I make sure I label my reviews with either spoiler free or spoilers, my review categories are also separated into spoiler free and spoilers sections.
I still, after reading Michelle’s thoughts on reading reviews before the novel and processing my own thoughts on it, will be reading reviews after I’ve read the novel.
Leave a comment telling me if you read the review before or after reading the novel and why.
Thank you so much for reading.
Yas xx
read books and drink coffee 
I read reviews without reading books quite often. I’m not worried about spoilers for most books. I can’t really think of ANY book where I really cared about spoilers besides Harry Potter, so I like to get opinions on books before I buy them.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s actually quite a good idea. I don’t buy a lot of book though, I go to the library and only buy the book if I liked it or know I’m going to like it
– Yasmin
LikeLiked by 1 person
Libraries are the best! I don’t spend a lot of money on books either. I like to know I’m going to love something before I buy it in most cases, too.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It all depends for me. I don’t mind spoilers so I’ll read reviews of books I’m interested in or is by an author I know or am curious about. Other times I just read reviews because I like reading them. I more avoid reading reviews after completing the book because I want to jot down my thoughts on the book first before reading them.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I like to make notes on the book while I’m reading it. Im so anxious that I’m going to get spoiled because I hate being spoiled. I enjoy reading spoiler free reviews because they do give me a general idea of the novel and other people’s thoughts and feelings about the novel as a whole
– Yasmin
LikeLike
I’m not big on notes because I don’t like to write in my books but I highlight everything!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I have a notebook and page flags. I like to note page numbers with my notes too. Mostly bc I borrow books from the library a lot
– Yasmin
LikeLike