Confessions of a Bookseller

Here's one of my secrets, which I wouldn't say outloud in the company of other booksellers:

I hate reading book reviews. Book reviews, especially extra clever ones, just make my eyes glaze over.

If and when I do read a book review all the way through, I'm rarely left with a real sense of what reading the book will be like. And when I read a review of a book I'm already familiar with, I most often think, "Geez, I'd have written a very different review."

An exception: If reviewers start off by telling me how they personally connected to a book (why they chose to read it, how it influenced them, why they thought it was worth reading even if it was a tough one, etc.) I get sucked right in, I love reading what they have to say, and I may actually go read the book!