Award winners - a useful tool for choosing what to read?

There's plenty awards around, at both national and international level, whether it's for movies, music or books. Does it influence what you watch, read, listen to?

For me, the longlist and the shortlist of various book awards means a lot. Someone else has gone to the trouble of pre-reading a book for me, and making a judgement call. It saves me the time of reading *everything* published in a given year, or genre, and let's me start with some of the best books.

So, a shortlist for an award either gives me a ready-made list of titles, authors and/or illustrators that I might be interested in (if I have enjoyed books that have won the award previously), or it gives me a list of books to avoid (if I haven't enjoyed previous award winning titles).

I've learnt that I generally don't enjoy books that have won the Man Booker Prize for Fiction, but I often enjoy books that have won the Commonwealth Book Prize. I have a friend who is the complete opposite to me - she actively seeks out anything on the Man Booker Prize shortlist.

Some 2011 book award winners include

Blue Smoke by Chris Bourke - New Zealand Post Book of the Year

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes - The Man Booker Prize for Fiction

Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis - The Hugo Award

The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna - Commonwealth Writers' Prize

So, does it make a difference for you when you see "award winner" on the front of a book cover?