You have a book on your "to-read" list and then...

[Julie]

Someone on your friend list gives it one star.

Does it have any effect on you? Do you move it to the back of the queue? Take it off your list? Move it to the front of the queue? Poke the friend in the eye? Dance naked around the room while singing "Rio" by Duran Duran?

[Julie]

It's happened a few times and I've generally filed it away in the back of my head and bumped the book down a few notches in the queue--especially if the book was on my to-read in the first place because I picked it randomly, as I tend to do.

I've seen the opposite happen, where a good review gets a book put on the list or bumped up, but I didn't know if I was the only one bumping down.

[PastAllReason]

For me it depends on the similarity of taste between the other reader and me. If we have very similar tastes and perspectives, it would have an influence on how quickly I would get around to reading the book; if we don't, it likely won't make any difference.

[Chris]

Not really. I'd probably give it a go anyway.

[Pam]

It depends on what I've heard about the book in other places. *Something* made me buy it, and since it's in the house, I'll get to it eventually.

[Ryl]

It depends on whether or not I trust that person's taste. If I went with what a lot of people had said, I never would have read the prequels to Dune. But since a friend whose taste I trust recommended them to me*, I read them and didn't regret it.

(*The same person who introduced me to Dune, in fact.)

[Jamie]

Tastes vary so widely that it's really hard to tell. Using the compare function I'll find that while a friend and I may have similar ratings for most books, there are inevitably a few books we disagree on.

So I would consider the bad review against whatever motivated me to buy the book in the first place. My to-read list isn't casual. Most of the books I have listed there are already purchased and waiting on my shelf.