What kind of book reviews are the most useful to you?

At the Guardian:

The conclusion of the Harvard academics was broadly this: that professionals are slightly more likely to review and approve of books written by writers who worked for the same titles as they, or books that had won prizes. Amazon reviewers, on the other hand, were rather more eclectic, and in particular seemed to be more supportive of debut authors.

Although it's really about a different facet of the professional vs. crowd-sourced review question, this essay got me thinking about reviews & how people use them.

As I don't do any of the ordering for my library, I don't have to read reviews for work. So I tend to avoid reading full reviews of YA books before I read them because I know it's likely that I'll get around to 'em at some point, and I don't want to bias my own opinion when writing my own reviews. But then, after I've read the book (and written the review), I love to scroll down through the reader reviews at Amazon and GoodReads, just to see where/how my opinion lines up.

When I get bored with my TBR pile (it happens) and go out looking for Something New, I poke around in Novelist or any of the other "I want something like..." sites, or I check the archives at Smart Bitches or a few select other genre-specific blogs.

And, of course, if I want a recommendation from someone who knows my tastes, I just go ahead and ask you. Or Twitter.

What about you?

ETA: Speaking of book reviews, I hadn't heard about the Hay House BookNook initiative. Six thousand book bloggers. All getting self-helped and motivational. In the same place. *backs away slowly*