Suzanne asks: "What's a Quill to do?" Part Deux

Two weeks ago I asked for recommendations for my greatly anticipated hiatus and you were kind enough to respond, sharing with me books you've loved, TV shows you've been watching, movies you could rave about. All proving --- at least here at Running With Quills --- that word of mouth is still a potent force in the world.

Which got me wondering, of course, about the whole critics-review process and how each of us decide what books to read, what TV shows to watch, and what movies to go see.

My son shares with me that he buys books primarily by author name. Once he discovers someone whose books he enjoys, he will start buying back list and will eventually read everything written by that author. (He is an author's favorite kind of person: he buys a lot of books and is a voracious reader!)

My husband tells me that he's currently reading FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS by James Bradley, with Ron Powers, because it's a subject matter that interests him (raising the flag on Iwo Jima during World War Two) and is a highly anticipated Clint Eastwood-directed movie coming out later in October. (Well, highly anticipated by some in our household, if not all. :-) dh also buys by author name. When it comes to movies: well, sometimes he'll read Roger Ebert's review, but, again, it mostly depends on the subject matter, the actors, or the director.

My friend and fellow author, Shirley Jump e-mailed me back with:

I read reviews, and then usually discount them, especially when the reviewers are snarky. In fact, the snarkier the reviewer, the more likely I am to go see the movie or read the book, just to spite that mean ol' reviewer (and I sit there the whole time, thinking 'in your face, Mean Joe Reviewer'). I figure if they hated it enough to bash it in print or on TV, then I simply MUST see it, on principle. And, thankfully, 9 times out of 10, the snarky reviewer turns out to be a frustrated artiste who was just being a jerk and the movie/book was actually quite good.

Mostly, I trust other people. I started watching "The Office" after hearing other people rave about it. Same thing with "Lost" and "ER" and a number of my other "must see" TV shows.

For books, I'm less influenced by others and more influenced by myself. I'm a lot harder to please when it comes to the written word, only because I spend my day working with words (put me in front of a TV and I become a totally vapid, easy-to-please remote control monkey, but give me a book, and I'm as picky as an Italian grandma at an Olive Garden). I spend time with a book before I commit to buying it. I read a few pages, get a feel for the language, the author's style. I want to make sure I'm not going to get pulled out of the story by grammatical issues or something silly like interjecting the point of view of the neighbor's goat in the middle of a crucial scene.

So, if you tell me you liked it, I'll give the movie, book or show a shot. Take a peek at it, see if it's something I'm interested in. And if not, I can always put it back on the shelf or change the channel. After all, there's almost always a rerun of "I Love Lucy" on some channel, somewhere. :-)

(Psst. Look for Shirley Jump's novella "Twelve Days" in Sugar and Spice, a Christmas anthology from Zebra Books with Fern Michaels, Beverly Barton and Joann Fluke.)

So, Inquiring Minds want to know: How do you decide what books to read, TV shows to try, or movies to go see? Do you read reviews? Do you pay any attention to online book reviews at sites like Amazon.com? Or do you mainly go by author name? Or personal recommendation?

Happy October!
Suzanne