Goodreads Choice Awards

Yesterday the opening round for the Goodreads Choice Awards began. Now you can vote for the nominees or write in your favorite books or authors in 20 categories.
There'll be three rounds:
The opening round from October 30th - November 10th
Semifinals: November 12th - November 17th
Final round: November 19th - November 27th
And at the end of the three voting rounds the winners will be announced. Winners that only the reader will determine. No jury, no committee.
I've been wondering how much value other people, especially readers of course, put into awards.
What's more important for you: An award like the Printz that's awarded by a committee, or a reader's choice award like the Goodreads Choice Awards?
Do you pay attention to awards? Would you buy a book just because it won the Goodreads Choice Awards or the Printz?
At first glance, I'd say that an award like the Printz says something about the literary merit of a book, while the Goodreads Choice Awards are purely based on the enjoyability - the fun factor of a book.
Did I get it wrong?
I'm personally not paying much attention to awards, though I love the Goodreads Choice Awards because every time I log into goodreads I can see what my friends have voted, I discover new books and I find myself browsing the nominees. But does that mean I'll buy a book just because it's nominated, or even wins the awards? The answer is no, but it'll definitely make me curious.
Let me know your thoughts on the matter!

Btw, I revealed my cover for my YA thriller IMPOSTOR (Silence of the Lambs meets X-men) a few days ago on the YA highway blog!

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1 comment:

Stephsco said...

The Goodreads awards are more akin to say The People's Choice awards, rather than the Emmys, Grammys or whatever. I always like to see which books are most popular. When a book ends up on a popular vote list, and also on critical awards lists, I really pay attention. Divergent got so much attention last year that I read it even though I'm a bit over the dystopian YA trend--a book has to be really exceptional in that genre to get me to read it. There are others (Jeff Hirch's for example was more of a standout than say some others that were overly-hyped, which I will keep nameless here!).