To answer your first question: no, I will not say that I like a book that I don’t like. I do my very best to be honest and to say exactly how I feel about a book.

When I wrote about the potential conflicts of interest and other influences (personal relationship with publishers, desire to continue receiving free advanced copies of books), I wasn’t saying that I consciously am affected by them but that I just might be (even subconsciously), and it’s up to the reader to guage and to keep me honest.

By expressing these concerns, I’m merely expressing the need for such a policy, not that I’m a particularly dishonest person. By disclosing which books I get for free, in my mind I’m giving the reader valuable information about my review. Readers have no reason to trust me. I’m not a syndicated writer. I’m not a professional reviewer. I work for myself on a platform I created myself. I could be very self-serving.

There are no legal ramifications — at least none that I’m aware of — if I misrepresent my opinion of a book (it would be mere puffery and not fraud) — another reason a clear policy is necessary. If I misrepresent facts about the author or about the book, my liability would be a different story.

I know a lot of bloggers say that if honesty is the policy, nothing else matters, disclose whether a book is a review copy or don’t. I respect these bloggers’ decisions. I agree that honesty should be the policy, but in the blog world there are a lot of other very real influences at play that can eschew that result. Some say that a blog review is no different from newspaper review, but I don’t agree. The honest review might be the same, but the forum is totally different. Newspapers have an editorial policy that has been disciplined and refined through the years. Blogs don’t. Also, a reputable newspaper with a paid book reviewer isn’t afraid that a publisher might stop sending them books because that would be the publisher’s loss, not theirs (most of the time). It could be the reverse with blogs. Also, most newspapers have a selection and assignment process that doesn’t involve the reviewer. The reviewer gets the book and the assignment (often based on their interests and abilities, newspapers do want to give a book the proper response). There might be other conflicts in this process, but to me they don’t seem as extreme as those in the blog world.

So, I don’t think you should avoid reading the reviews of books which were given to me by publishers (they’re very good books, for the most part), but I think you should know that I’m getting a stream of books from these publishers. That readers know I might be affected doesn’t get me off the hook. This policy doesn’t give me a license to lie just because it is apparently transparent. But it is a degree of honesty that I think is necessary for blogs, particular those written by non-professional book lovers who mainly started their blogs just to expres their love for books.

I don’t understand what legal ramifications are being intimated but if you review a book I would want to know what you really think. Should I avoid reading the reviews of books which were given to you by the publishers?

Thanks for your comments, everyone. The content of the blog won’t change much (just that little caption under the book cover), but it’s nice to have this out there. I feel clean!

It’s good to see that when it comes to cricket, Kevin has become an honourary Australian!

But then there are others (and kimbofo’s latest post of the Great Hall in Trinity College, Dublin, is my best possible example) who want to share our experience with the world — sometimes that fits a publisher’s agenda and sometimes it does not. Telling our visitors what our source was is not a bid deal.

Whereas, Australia beating England in the final Test match is. Barrack on, Australia!!!!!

By the way, you have a wonderful blog. I visit often but don’t always comment.

If I don’t like a book, I won’t finish it nor review it. I figure that the author put some sweat and tears into his/her work and I wouldn’t want to discourage the authors. Also, it might also be my mood.I sometimes go back to books that I hated and find that I like them now.

Right now, I am not accepting anything from anyone due to hurricane season. I need to be ready to evacuate and don’t want to think about the ARCs that I haven’t touched.