Why do you care what I'm reading?

I've noticed that a number of people are arriving at this blog via All Consuming.

All Consuming is a website that visits recently updated weblogs every hour, checking them for links to books on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Sense, and other book sites. Every book on this site has a list of all the weblogs that have mentioned it, and every weblog that has mentioned books in the past also has a page here listing which books it has mentioned.

Like, wow. It never occurred to me that there would be websites like that and that people would want its services. Not all that surprising really, now that I think about it.

Still, why would anyone trust a blog over a "legitimate," professional, published review for guidance in reading material? I mean, unless they're a blogstalker and they've been reading you obsessively for months, long enough to have developed a fondness for your nonsense, a sense of trust in your opinion.

In which case, they would go to the trusted blog directly for reading recommendations. Why would they refer to a list compiling the opinions of stranger-bloggers?

Are they the same people who find the inane reviews at Amazon useful?

I make a point of not linking to Amazon whenever I can help it. (Not yet one of those Amazon Associate sellouts, but maybe soon.) I prefer to link to a good review or article or the book's or author's official website. When none of these exists, I'll link to a book-selling site if I firmly believe you ought to find out a bit more on that particular work.

So, do you really care what I'm reading?