Old News at Amazon?

I admit that I don't Google myself. And I don't visit Amazon all that often either. Once in a blue moon, I will check over there to see if a new book or cover is up, if the iPod or audible versions of a book are now available, or the download versions for e-readers (because I would say every two weeks or so a reader will write and ask when something is coming out on e-reader). So, I popped on late last night to respond to a question from a reader--and lo and behold, I discover that now when you see the number of stars a book has, way up at the top, there is a little down arrow. When you click on it, you get a graph detailing how many five-star reviews, four-stars, and so on--you can thus do so without having to read through a bunch of reader reviews.

I, for one, am impressed.

Why?

Well . . . when I read through reviews as an author, or, as I often do knowing so many writers, as a personal friend of an author, I never cease to be amazed at the sheer venom with which some people will review. Case in point . . . you can read through 11 good reviews of one of my books . . . and there is 1 atrocious review. Not just atrocious--but NAME-CALLING. As I was perusing this new thing over on Amazon, I saw one review in which the person threatened to throw the book at me. I have a friend, a writer I adore, who got one review that said "I'm sorry I spent money on this book and encouraged this hack to write." WHAT?

Now, I cannot imagine going through life feeling so compelled to write bad reviews. Many books aren't my cup of tea, but I know SOMEONE likes to read them. So more power to them. I know, because I am in this biz, how personal a business it is. But the great thing about this little down arrow--which for all I know has been there for ages--is that if I click on a book's stars and see that 20 people gave it a five-star review or a four-star review, and ONE person gave it a one-star review, that chances are, that lone reviewer was looking for something different. And chances are, because I've never seen a one-star review written in a dispassionate voice, it's a petty review or it just is so filled with rancor that I won't really get a sense of the book.

Do reviews sway me? Sometimes. When I choose books for my book group, I will generally go and see what kind of reviews are there--sometimes it's to make sure it's not an overall lukewarm-reviewed book, sometimes reader reviews will tell me a few spoilers that let me know that it might not be thematic enough for a book group, or it might have something too political or controversial about it, and maybe I don't feel like dealing with that with other readers at my group. So yeah, in that sense they sway me. But, as I've detailed here, I'm savy enough to know what certain types of reviews mean. Nonetheless, this new arrow key lets me cut to the chase.

What do you think? And do reader reviews ever sway you?