How much do online reviews shape what you pick up next?
Reviews mainly make me aware of books that I might want to pick up. If a person who generally likes the same type of books as me enjoyed a book, that may make me more likely to pick it up.
More often, if I’m interested in the book from the blurb, I won’t read reviews. I don’t want to risk getting spoilers or getting influenced in how I should feel about it.
If I’m really not sure if I want to put the time into a book, I may look at reviews to get an overall sense if people liked it. If it trends negative or brings up plot points that will annoy me, I may go to something else.
Yesterday I wrote about a friend who gets upset when I rate books poorly that she wanted to read. I definitely don’t let other people influence my opinions that much.
Overall, I think people are getting less interested in reviews overall. Do you agree?
Intriguing about your friend’s reaction to a poor review from you. If I’m on the fence about a book, I may read reviews that have explanations as to why the reviewer liked or disliked a book. But we all like different things. There have been several times in the last couple of years that I gave low ratings to books that are rather popular.
Your methods sound familiar! I definitely use reviews if I’m on the fence, checking for stuff like annoying tropes and things like that. I suspect I’m quite strongly influenced by other people’s opinions, so I do enjoy just going to a bookshop and browsing, and seeing what I find without looking anything up.
I don’t know about people being less interested in reviews. I’d say less interested in blogging specifically, and quite possibly in text reviews in general, but from what I understand, Booktok/Bookstagram/etc are thriving, so reviews may live on in that format?
Here’s my post: https://breathesbooks.com/2026/09/11/book-blogger-hop-the-influence-of-reviews/
I agree that reviews are often more useful for discovering books than deciding exactly what to read next. I also think readers may be relying more on quick recommendations these days, but I still really enjoy reading other bloggers’ thoughts. Happy Reading!
I try not to let reviews influence me, but if a book is popular on social media then I will investigate it further to see if it would interest me.
Interesting about what you said about reviews. I see all the time that when people post reviews on Instagram or TikTok then their usual view number decreases. So I’m not sure if it because people genuinely aren’t interested or if it’s the algorithm pushing other stuff instead.
Have a great week!
Emily @ Budget Tales Book Blog
My post:
https://budgettalesblog.wordpress.com/2026/09/11/book-blogger-hop-how-much-do-online-reviews-shape-what-you-pick-up-next/