Apparently, yes, yes I would. I'm late to the game, but since everyone in the online romance community is talking about reviews, I'm going to do it too. I'm just such a follower.
Frankly, the whole thing is a little dizzying, with authors chiming in at every other moment and readers up in arms over insinuations that weren't insinuations and blah blah blah blah blah. I'm a little confused about who said what, and why, so if I'm hazy on the details, you'll have to forgive me. Maybe I'm a little abnormal, but I don't see what all the fuss is about. (Then again, I've never written a book. Maybe if I had, I'd be more sensitive to the issue. And I've never written a book because it's too damn hard. It's hard, and I know it's hard, because I've tried. And gotten nowhere. So none of this is supposed to be mean to published authors. Anyone who can even jump over the "book is actually written" hurdle is one step ahead of me.)
I don't read reviews. I don't use them, ever, in my personal life. I find them arbitrary and useless. I trust certain people to recommend books to me, and otherwise I just pick and choose from what looks good at the library and the bookstore. I'll certainly take note of titles in magazines, but I usually don't read the reviews attached to the title (unless it's a book I know I won't read, ever). I've certainly ended up with some clunkers, but that's okay. I accept that as a hazard of being a reader; just like I know I'm not going to like every movie I see, every thing I eat, every CD I listen to or every anything I ever choose to try. Does that make sense? I don't trust reviews because I know we all like different things.
Here's an (anonymous) example: I have a friend who has given me lots and lots of good romances. But one of the first she gave me, I didn't much like. But I still take book recommendations from her now, because she's given me many, many good recommendations. It's just that none of us are identical in our reading tastes, and so this person and my tastes will never exactly overlap. We may like lots of the same books, but we don't like ALL of the same books.
I find that exchange, however, hard to come by with people who I don't know. In time, you can learn (as someone on one of those comment threads said) whether you agree or disagree with someone. But the truth is, you'll never wholesale agree or disagree with what someone says. So isn't it just better to get out there and read and find out for yourself? I think so. At the very least, check the book out from the library (ILL can be your friend) and it's cost you a big whopping zero dollars to try a new author out, without being prejudiced.
Two last things: I never write reviews on this site. Okay, not never, but rarely. I've certainly gushed about authors, but I've never graded a book. (I do usually break this for heavily hyped books that I don't think live up to the hype. You don't have to read reviews to know what's being hyped, especially if you have a boyfriend who works in a bookstore and you yourself used to work in a bookstore. I also will break/broke this policy for the Time 100 books, just because.) But considering that I'm still reading almost three books a week, I'm really not talking about what I'm reading. I will give people I know books, and I don't have a problem recommending books when someone wants something recommended.
And that kind of segways to my second point. I often give my sister books that I couldn't get through. I don't think that we like all of the same books, and I'm not going to stop her from reading something that she might like. Again, just because I don't like something doesn't mean she won't. (I guess you have to understand that I give my sister books by the bucketload. And she's often raided bookshelves either here or at my mom's house, looking for something to read. However, I don't give her everything I read. Sometimes they're library books, or of a genre that she just doesn't enjoy. Although, that doesn't always stop me either. She reads Janet Evanovich because of me, and I've passed Connie Willis books to her as well. Mystery and Sci-fi being two genres she doesn't love. Usually, I just use my discretion and pass her most fiction items. Not much non-fiction, because mostly I get that from the library, and that doesn't get passed. Anyway, digression.) I'm always honest with her, but I don't think I ever really tell her NOT to read something. Maybe Kate will disagree. I don't know.
Anyway, the point is, who cares what anyone thinks of your books? There's probably a passionate reader out there who loves them, and you should be writing for her (or yourself, as someone else pointed out, can't remember who), not the haters, who might come around, or who might not. And as for listening to reviews? Makes no sense to me.
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