The Return of the American Council of Witches

[RandallS]

Kenny Klein, now that's a name I haven't heard in almost 20 years.

He's had a couple of books published by Llewellyn in the last few years.

[SunflowerP]

He's had a couple of books published by Llewellyn in the last few years.

 
This, I had not known.   And they look reasonably okay, too.  (Especially from the bad reviews - anyone who is annoying the Jungian monomythologist pagans and the fairy-enamoured fluffy bunnies, is doing something right.)  Wishlist grows.

Sunflower

[Tana]

(Especially from the bad reviews - anyone who is annoying the Jungian monomythologist pagans and the fairy-enamoured fluffy bunnies, is doing something right.)

I love the reviews on amazon.
And I usually get most out of the 'bad' reviews in fact.
Depending on what disturbs the reviewer I know if it's my kind of book or not. :p

[sailor]

I love the reviews on amazon.
And I usually get most out of the 'bad' reviews in fact.
Depending on what disturbs the reviewer I know if it's my kind of book or not. :p

 
Well, if the reviewer has actually read the books, yeah.  A friend's book was the number two book in English (right after one of the Harry Potter ones) on Amazon Germany. It was pretty easy to tell when the 1 star reviews hadn't read the book, but only looked at the cover art and back blurb.

Same goes for 5 star reviews, sort of.  Not so much that the readers hadn't read the book, but they were hard core fans.

[Asch]

Well, if the reviewer has actually read the books, yeah.  A friend's book was the number two book in English (right after one of the Harry Potter ones) on Amazon Germany. It was pretty easy to tell when the 1 star reviews hadn't read the book, but only looked at the cover art and back blurb.

Same goes for 5 star reviews, sort of.  Not so much that the readers hadn't read the book, but they were hard core fans.

 
I skim the 5 and 1 star reviews but actually read the 2-3 reviews. Sometimes they're nitpicky and take a star off for ridiculous reasons but a lot of times they're the more thoughtful/less knee jerk reviews as well.

[SunflowerP]

I love the reviews on amazon.
And I usually get most out of the 'bad' reviews in fact.
Depending on what disturbs the reviewer I know if it's my kind of book or not. :p

 
So do I.  It was just especially informative this time - usually I'm like Asch, and don't put much stock in the one-star and five-star ones (as Peter says, the five-star ones are often just author-worship); there's usually much more thoughtful analysis of the book's strengths and weaknesses in the two-, three-, and four-star ones.

Sunflower

[Tana]

there's usually much more thoughtful analysis of the book's strengths and weaknesses in the two-, three-, and four-star ones.

That's true, of course.
But I found, with some books on animal medicine (homeopathics and things) that a bad review like: "*whine* there were so many latin words in it *whine*" is really helpful. Because it tells me it is a subject book and not written for the broad masses who wants to dabble into the whole thing. (How dare they to use Latin in a medical book... tsts.. *g*)

[SunflowerP]

That's true, of course.
But I found, with some books on animal medicine (homeopathics and things) that a bad review like: "*whine* there were so many latin words in it *whine*" is really helpful. Because it tells me it is a subject book and not written for the broad masses who wants to dabble into the whole thing. (How dare they to use Latin in a medical book... tsts.. *g*)

 
Yeah, I'm not often looking at books on subjects where that's quite so sharp - though a few subject areas come close (sociology stuff in which the whine is, "this book is awful because it challenges my preconceptions," f'ex, or cooking, of all things, where some people want everything to be a recipe collection).

Sunflower