Friday, November 9, 2007

Grady Harp on Powell's Books

Our friend No.7 Top Reviewer — I'm talking about Maestro Harp, of course — appears to be running a syndicated show, just like Harriet Klausner.

PS. Unrelated (though who is to say?): The Art of the Book Review, an Interview with Grady Harp. Study this.

11 comments:

Cathy said...

It appears TNGHVM is in action there as well, albeit on a smaller scale. He must be shooting to win the Daily Dose prize from Powell's.

I see he doesn't mention in his "interview" that he reviews movies as much or more than he does books.

Stanley H Nemeth said...

"Actually there is a down side to being a Top 10 Reviewer. There are circle (sic) of fairly vicious people who seem to fill their days spouting venom at those of us who have been reviewing for such a long time that we are in the Top 10."
Example of venom spouting: A Top 10 Reviewer might have been expected to write "There is a circle," but what's accuracy in usage compared to the glories of Harp's streamlined phrasing?

Malleus said...

:-) Yeah, I liked that part too. I feel so bad for Grady, too bad he forgot to mention exactly why he attracts attention ... or rather he lies about the reason, which is not his reviews but the ridiculous voting pattern; he's mum about that, interesting. A fraud swelling with phony righteousness, what a sight.

Cathy, do you mean there's voting on Powell's site too?

Cathy said...

Malleus, yes there's voting helpful yes or no, but no ranking system so you have to wonder why Grady bothers. Believe it or not I posted a few reviews there and some ASS had to hit them all with negatives. Since there's no ranking system like there is on Amazon, the idiot did nothing more than waste his time.

Stanley H Nemeth said...

Cathy:
Your bad experience at Powell's shows once again that the internet has many people on it filled with free-floating malice. Their views are not to be disagreed with to the slightest extent, much less intelligently criticized, or they will respond with whatever negative power is at their disposal. Non illegitimi carborundum!
In a similar vein, if the self-righteous Grady Harp were instead either an honest or a non-self-deceived guy, he'd recognize that the routine trashing by the NGHVM - a pretty vicious circle in its own right - of just about any review that differs from the judgments in his yes-voter-inflated own is hardly a feather in his Top 10 Reviewer's cap. But then again, as Malleus points out, Harp is of the view he's a Top 10 Reviewer solely because he's written so many distinguished reviews over a long period of time. And when such ignorance, real or feigned, is bliss, who could hope to set the Maestro right?

Cathy said...

Malleus, I firmly believe that whoever negged my reviews at Powells was someone from the Amazon discussions that had an axe to grind. I know we had a thread about Powells previously and they picked up on it from there. You would think they had better things to do in life.

Malleus said...

I guess not! :-)

Cathy said...

Well well well, apparently that person doesn't have much else to do. Since these comments were posted, "someone" has been surruptitiously (sp?) negging my reviews, picking one here, another there, another somewhere else so it doesn't really look like campaign voting.

I hope they stop that soon before I report the campaign voting to Amazon. That is one thing they will take action on if they are aware of it.

Malleus said...

I wouldn't bother -- who cares?

Cathy said...

Malleus, who cares indeed, whoever it is is just making an ASS of themselves. The negatives haven't affected my ranking, it's actually improved.

Funny, since this topic has started "someone" has voted negatively again and again and again and again on any reviews I've posted at Powells. While it appears there's no limit to voting (as there is on Amazon) there is no ranking either.

What a STUPID waste of someone's time. Isn't there some other way to spend one's time? Reading a book perhaps?

Malleus said...

Reading a book?!! Gotta review! Not read.