Due to the fact that I’ve had a lot of free time this week, I’ve been thinking about my blog a lot more.  What is the point of reviewing?  Do people read my reviews?  Is having a lot of reviews from book blogs a plus for self-published authors?

Of all of these questions, one really stuck in my mind.  Do reviews affect your book buying decisions?  For example, if you see that a book has a lot of five star reviews on Amazon that sound legitimate and offer reasons for their praise, does it make you more likely to read the book?  Or, if you find that your favourite book blogger has reviewed a book do you go check it out and maybe buy it?

Personally I look at books that interest me and then look at the reviews on Amazon and/or Goodreads.  What were some of the pluses?  What were some of the things reviewers didn’t like?  Reviews aren’t the be-all end-all factor in my book buying decisions, but they sure do have some influence.  Another thing I’ve noticed is that if one of my book blogger friends has reviewed a book and I think it sounds cool I am much more likely to go out and buy that book because I become aware of its existence.  Maybe that’s just me.

So my question for you guys is this: Do reviews affect your book buying decisions?  Why or why not?  And if so, to what extent?