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The Literary Ecosystem Is Dying (www.theatlantic.com)
submitted 9 months ago by to c/books@lemmy.world
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[–] 5 points 9 months ago (8 children)

I don't like book reviews by professionals. The only reviews I trust are by two friends on Goodreads who I know have very similar tastes to mine.

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  • [–] 5 points 9 months ago (4 children)

    Reviews are supposed to be a place for analysis, evaluation and discussion, not just recommendation.

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  • [–] 4 points 9 months ago (3 children)

    If that is the case, it sounds very niche and only of interest to people inside the literary world.

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  • [–] 2 points 9 months ago (2 children)

    Analysis and discussion of literary works is only for those "inside" the literary world? But surely everyone who reads is inside the literary world.

    It is reasonable to read a book and be interested in other people's different thoughts on it, that hardly requires some sort of specialist knowledge.

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  • [–] 0 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    If reviews from people paid to review is what you crave, you are part of the niche group. I do read reviews, but I only care about reviews from people who share my taste in books. Every other review is worthless to me. I don't see why different thoughts would be helpful. Oh, they didn't/did like it for reasons. Cool. That's all fine, but why should I read that?

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  • [–] 1 point 9 months ago*

    I'm not saying you should read them; and I already provided the reasons for reading them above. You can find those reasons compelling or not.

    I never mentioned the reviewer being paid. There's many interesting blogs and Goodreads profiles that are worth following too. My impression is, you're drawing an overly sharp boundary between your style of reading and something you imagine is "professional" reading of those who care about reviews.

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