Hey dudes/dudettes,

I am a loyal visitor of the novel section of mobilism, and I normally really appreciate the blurbs that are posted alongside the books to give you an idea of what the book is about. The blurbs are neutral in nature, and usually I can guess whether I'll like a book from the blurb alone.

Since this week though, an uploader named eBookUploader has started uploading books but instead of adding blurbs, adds his/her own review. Now I'm not against reading reviews when that's what I'm looking for, it sometimes helps in the decision of whether to read a book or not, but I miss the blurbs! However neat these reviews are written, they're still biased by this persons opinion of the book. I don't know eBookUploader's taste in books, but it could very well be that whatever he or she claims is a good book, I find horrible. Who knows?

So my request is this: would it be possible to go back to posting neutral blurbs (e.g. the ones from the back of the book) in stead of reviews? I think it's fine if reviews are posted below this, might even come in handy sometimes, but still. Blurbs pls! :)

Here is an example of a review in stead of a blurb:

The Single Girl's To-Do List by Lindsey Kelk(2011)
Requirements: pdf,epub,mobi reader, 2.27 MB
Overview: The Single Girl's To Do List is one of the lightest reads I've read all year, but it was exactly what I was looking for. I loved it, I really did. The pages practically turned themselves and I was pleased to get to meet this new crop of characters. Lindsey's writing style, boys aside, is so so easy to get lost in. Honestly, it just flows brilliantly and I was sucked up into the book from page one. I didn't have any particular niggles with the book, though at times Rachel doesn't exactly come across in the best light, and I hope Kelk sticks with writing standalone novels like The Single Girl's To Do List. She definitely has the ability to become big in Chick Lit because she has a fresh and funny style and I laughed numerous times whilst reading the novel. The novel was definitely a triumph, and I'm pleased to say that the books ends so well that there is no need for a sequel.

[Bohica60]

I agree, I would much rather have a synopsis (blurb) of the story than someone else's personal review. I want to know what the story is about, NOT what you ("reviewer") think about the story. People's views & likes/dislikes are much too varied and really don't tell me anything about the book itself.

It's really not THAT hard to find something online about almost any book. Here are the search parameters that I use. They get some kind of working result almost every time. In the 'search' box, put:

"Book Title" + "Author Name" + "synopsis" (or 'summary').

Yeah, maybe it would be easier if they posted the blub and then offer a link to their review? I get wanting to promote your own point of view or review (I have a book review blog myself), but for people not looking for a review it can be a little frustrating.

[zackddog]

If you don't trust someone else' personal review, the easiest thing to do is check what others have to say about the book on amazon or some other book seller site. That's what I do. I find blogs very useful when choosing books as well. They are usually written by people who are a bit more knowledgeable than I am about their subjects and they are usually right about what they have written.

The best thing about blogs is that they -for the most part-categorize their reviews by genre and age group which helps steer me away from the Romance and Young Adult teen drama queen who is in love with a vampire who happens to be in love with the baker's virgin daughter who is in love with bad boy taciturn drug dealer who is gay and in love with a werewolf.

[Bohica60]

The best thing about blogs is that they -for the most part-categorize their reviews by genre and age group which helps steer me away from the Romance and Young Adult teen drama queen who is in love with a vampire who happens to be in love with the baker's virgin daughter who is in love with bad boy taciturn drug dealer who is gay and in love with a werewolf.

Yeees, but ... the blurb (i.e., back cover info) usually does the same thing - WITHOUT someone else's personal opinion getting in the way. More than once, I have gone to a movie that I was told/read were awful - and found that I thought it was great. And Vice Versa. The same has been my experience with books.

I would much rather get a factual representation of what a book is about and base my decision whether or not to read it on that, than to decide based on what someone I don't even know decided he/she liked/disliked about it. Everyone has different likes & dislikes.

There are movies I won't even watch because they have a certain actor/actress in them that, in my opinion, cannot act at all. Others think they are the greatest actor/actress ever, and go see any movie with them in it, just BECAUSE they are in it. The same thing applies here.

Just my 0.02, YMMV

(BTW, I love that book description. I'm going to have to save that one!!! )

I have to agree that the blurb is the best. If you want to add a review, then add it after the blurb with NO SPOILERS! Just saying.

I agree that reviews are a great way to get a feel for the book, but I want the blurb first and formost. I can go find reviews if I want them and I usually do. If anything, reviews are eier to find than blurbs. I find that a lot of books on Amazon don't have blurbs, which is really annoying.

[zackddog]

I have to agree that the blurb is the best. If you want to add a review, then add it after the blurb with NO SPOILERS! Just saying.

I agree that reviews are a great way to get a feel for the book, but I want the blurb first and formost. I can go find reviews if I want them and I usually do. If anything, reviews are eier to find than blurbs. I find that a lot of books on Amazon don't have blurbs, which is really annoying.

The thing is, the blurbs are usually written for or by the publisher, so that opinion or description is biased from the beginning. So I try to find out what other mainstream (press) reviewers have to say, which is in fact a blog. Just someone whose opinion was paid for with actual money instead of "hits" but still just that, an opinion. I try getting three or four of those and try to get a feel for what they are trying to say, form my own biased opinion and make a decision.

Most of the time it's the correct decision but, boy oh boy, I've gotten some doozies.

[Bohica60]

Most of the time it's the correct decision but, boy oh boy, I've gotten some doozies.

Not EVEN going there!! Had my share of those too!

[zackddog]

By the way, Bohica, I think that the book description needs a little editing, something like this:

"drug dealer who is secretely gay and in love with a werewolf. Who is in love with the teen drama queen.

Turns the whole thing into a nice circle and the foundation for a series longer than that idiotic Twilight.


Not that I read any of it, or got any ideas from it, just what I heard.

LOL That would be good to do on April fools. As to Twilight, I tried to read it and it was awful. But the other book she wrote, The Host, was very good. Not something I think guys would like, too much head narrative, but I liked it a great deal.

[hmorphone]

LOL That would be good to do on April fools. As to Twilight, I tried to read it and it was awful. But the other book she wrote, The Host, was very good. Not something I think guys would like, too much head narrative, but I liked it a great deal.

I actually enjoyed the Twilight books. I know, I know, there goes my reputation, my Man Card, and Merry will probably make me sew a scarlet "T" onto my avatar

That said, I'll be the first to say Meyer is no Hemingway.

Also, the books are probably a bad influence on young girls, though I feel Harry Potter is probably an even worse influence on children.

I really dislike the Blurb vs Review topic. Not really because there's anything wrong with it, and not because I don't value reading others opinions. It's because, on another forum, I saw it turn into a 6 or 7 page discussion, mostly with rehashes of the first few opinions, primarily because of one major ebook releaser. This person would spit out 10 or 20 ebook posts at a time, using the paying " F******** " host. I'm not sure which site he actually leeched the books from, but he either just pasted the "reviews" from that site in, or he used the easiest site he could find to slap his posts up, (and that site used reviews.) Half the people didn't seem to realize that he didn't care whether or not they disliked the fact that he used reviews instead of blurbs. I, myself, prefer blurbs, but sometimes a mix of the two, or a useful review with no spoilers is good. (See my Green Angel post.)

I shall now duck for cover, having posted such controversial opinions

[womble]

LOL That would be good to do on April fools. As to Twilight, I tried to read it and it was awful. But the other book she wrote, The Host, was very good. Not something I think guys would like, too much head narrative, but I liked it a great deal.

I actually enjoyed the Twilight books. I know, I know, there goes my reputation, my Man Card, and Merry will probably make me sew a scarlet "T" onto my avatar

That said, I'll be the first to say Meyer is no Hemingway.

Also, the books are probably a bad influence on young girls, though I feel Harry Potter is probably an even worse influence on children.

I really dislike the Blurb vs Review topic. Not really because there's anything wrong with it, and not because I don't value reading others opinions. It's because, on another forum, I saw it turn into a 6 or 7 page discussion, mostly with rehashes of the first few opinions, primarily because of one major ebook releaser. This person would spit out 10 or 20 ebook posts at a time, using the paying " F******** " host. I'm not sure which site he actually leeched the books from, but he either just pasted the "reviews" from that site in, or he used the easiest site he could find to slap his posts up, (and that site used reviews.) Half the people didn't seem to realize that he didn't care whether or not they disliked the fact that he used reviews instead of blurbs. I, myself, prefer blurbs, but sometimes a mix of the two, or a useful review with no spoilers is good. (See my Green Angel post.)

I shall now duck for cover, having posted such controversial opinions

I was looking forward to reading the 'Host', then 'TWILIGHT' was released! Now anything to do with the author or 'twilitght' makes me gag! Even my daughters who are in the right age group, fall about laughing and spend more time looking for parodies I now avoid any posts that give just a review for the same reasons the released doesn't take time to make sure his post is okay (book covers, books that actually open etc), and is just trying to make a profit, grrh If you have read the book, giving a review can be difficult without revealing spoilers! I think it's okay to be contreversial if you've actually given the subject some thought, not just to sound off!

[hmorphone]

Now that's just cruel womble!
Now, not only have you lost respect for me, but I'm the laughingstock of your daughters as well

Oh well, I thought I knew what I was in for when I posted that...

[sherlockx]

Actually I would quite like to see a review as well as the synopsis. It need only be "I could not put this book down" or "I found this not to my taste but fans of this author may enjoy"
My reason for saying this is that I currently have some 15,000+ sci-fi /fantasy books on my computer together with over 20,000 other books( ebay) which even with my reading speed (300 pages per hour) is going to take me some years to get through and some are destined never to be read because I cannot be bothered to find out about the author.
I am currently just starting to read a book I have downloaded from this forum today " A Kingdom Besieged" by Feist and I am a quarter of the way through it. My comment so far would be that you would need to have read at least the first 3 books in this series to understand this one.
In the same way I would welcome comments on audiobooks because some narrators just put me to sleep with their monotone voices.
Perhaps one solution would be to have a separate reviews section in this forum where anyone who had read a book from here could comment.
I shall now go away and hide.

[hmorphone]

sherlockx has a point.
I would prefer a brief personal "review" from the poster added to the blurb.
I tried adding one to my Green Angel release.