Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Amazon Review Blotter, May 23 2007

W.Boudville update:
On May 23 WB reviewed two (2) three (3) books:
  • CMMI(R) for Outsourcing: Guidelines for Software, Systems, and IT Acquisition (464 pages)
  • Space Vehicle Design (660 pages)
  • Multimedia over IP and Wireless Networks (712 pages)
[1372 1836 pages altogether]

On May 22 WB reviewed two (2) books:
  • Heavy-Tail Phenomena: Probabilistic and Statistical Modeling (406 pages)
  • JBoss(R) Seam: Simplicity and Power Beyond Java(TM) EE (432 pages)
[838 pages altogether]

On May 20 and 21 W.Boudville rested.

On May 19 WB reviewed a 384-page book.
On May 17 WB reviewed a 351-page book.


Robert Morris update:
On May 23 Robert Morris reviewed four (4) books:
  • The Ultimate Business Library: The Greatest Books That Made Management (346 pages)
  • Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins: How to Use Your Own Stories to Communicate With Power and ImpactMultimedia over IP and Wireless Networks (226 pages)
  • Hidden in Plain Sight: How to Find and Execute Your Company's Next Big Growth Strategy ( 272 pages)
  • The Pyramid Principle ( 177 pages)
------
[1021 pages altogether]

On May 22 Robert Morris reviewed three (3) books:
  • A New Strategy for Continuous Improvement: 10 Steps to Lower Costs and Operational Excellence (180 pages)
  • The Elegant Solution: Toyota's Formula for Mastering Innovation (256 pages)
  • Competing on Analytics: The New Science of Winning (240 pages)
------
[676 pages altogether]

On May 21 Robert Morris reviewed two (2) books:
  • Harvard Business Review on Becoming a High-Performance Manager (192 pages)
  • The Giants of Sales: What Dale Carnegie, John Patterson, Elmer Wheeler, And Joe Girard Can Teach You About Real Sales Success ( 228 pages)
------
[420 pages altogether]

All books are five stars, except one four, and one three (!) stars.


John Matlock "Gunny" update:
Quiescent since May 16, 2007.
Today, on May 23, 2007, John Matlock "Gunny" reviewed two (2) three (3) books:
  • Unlikely Liberators: The Men of the 100th and 442nd.
  • The de Vaucouleurs Atlas of Galaxies
  • Advantage Database Server: A Developer's Guide (dated tomorrow, as he does sometimes)
[Situation changes as we watch! Who knows how many books he will have reviewed by the end of today... Stand by.]

10 comments:

KT Grant said...

Do these people eat shit and sleep reading books? And these do not look to be easy reads. yikes!!
I have a feeling they do a three point read- read first 2 chapters, then another 2 in the middle and then the final 2.

Malleus said...

That's too much work I think. My guess is they read the intro and the back cover. Check out Boudville's reviews: they're mostly drivel, not even anything about the book he reviews, just some random crap + a phrase or two with the information you can get simply by reading the title. :-)

Malleus said...

I also suspect that some of them don't even write their reviews (I have to exempt WB and JMG from this: for better or worse, their review are obviously their own work).

A lot of these reviews read like typical commercial copy, so I wonder if publisher don't give this sort of material to them, ready-to-use sort of thing, and all they need to do is post it under their "REAL NAMEs" so it looks legit.

(Oh, I almost forgot! -- there's little doubt by now that Harriet Klausner doesn't write this mass of erratic, erroneous, frequently disjointed and Engrish-infested reviews that are posted under her name.)

KT Grant said...

Do the publishers send the book with an outline? They must because there is no way you can read 2 600 page books in 2 days like that!
Unless you have alot of bathroom reading going on... :)

Malleus said...

Yeah, that's what I suspect. After all, the same writer who wrote a book's jacket copy, could write a bit more of it and give it to our friends top reviewers -- just so they don't overexert themselves...

Barbara Delaney said...

As I started reading the comment by kg I thought the question being posed was "Do these people eat shit?" I thought that might be just a little over the top.

Boudville's reviews of medical books are very unconvincing. The only subject I'm sure he is genuinely interested in is hair loss. In a recent review of a science fiction novel he seemed very upset that although cancer and Aids had been cured, baldness had not been cured. He mentioned it twice. Clearly this is an area of great concern.

KT Grant said...

I missed my punctuation meaning do they eat, sh*t and sleep reading...
my bad :0

Malleus said...

Now, kg you go now wash your mouth with soap! :-)

My understanding of this message was that they must be consuming their own excrement because with such an intensive reading-and-reviewing program they don't have time for getting anything else.

Malleus said...

Boudville and hair loss! Now, that gets funny. I also noticed how he didn't hesitate to review a medical book (this guy will review anything at all), but the hair-loss thema, I must admit, I missed. My bad, I'll go back now and re-read everything more carefully.

KT Grant said...

*gurgle gurgle* bad potty mouth on me!