A man Harriet Klausner would understand and like

Who is that handsome chap? Ah but of course, everyone knows it's professor Figes, who has recently decided to wade into the murky waters of Amazon review writing with such effect.

... The future of one of Britain's leading historians was looking increasingly uncertain tonight after he admitted that he was the author of anonymous reviews that praised his own work as "fascinating" and "uplifting" while rubbishing that of his rivals. ...

Harriet and Professor Figes have a lot in common, maybe they should go on a date, what do you think, Dear Reader?

Amazon Discussion Board: Closed to the Public?

Have you noticed that the Amazon Discussion Board now seems to require logging in even in order to read it? It used to be widely open; you needed to log in only if you wanted to post something. Why such an interesting change? One can't help wondering is some of the action by the house shills there ("not a requirement" and the like) was determined too open for the general reader... Here's one example.

Re: The Harriet Klausner Mythos

Just bumped into an interesting post, The Harriet Klausner Mythos:

Booksquare suggests that Amazon reviewer Harriet Klausner (profiled in today’s Wall Street Journal by Joanne Kaufman) isn’t exactly a discovery of such stunning new finds as Tess Gerritsen, pointing out that Gerritsen’s career kick-started several years before.

However, I’m curious why the Wall Street Journal didn’t make an effort to verify Klausner’s extraordinary claims. Kaufman only describes Klausner’s voice as “more than a few dips of helium,” but makes no reference to the geography of her home or Ms. Klausner’s appearance. I’m wondering if Kaufman even spoke with Ms. Klausner in person. After all, if Klausner has read over 8,000 books and reviewed them in a mere five years [today, another five years on, it's 21,490: Harriet's Amazon "lifetime" average is about six (6) books a day], wouldn’t it be worth a trip to Atlanta to observe just how she does it?

Comments

Pete on March 30th, 2005 7:24 am

Maybe Kaufman is practicing Jayson Blair’s “reporting from Brooklyn” method.

Indeed! I always felt the same way, Pete. Add in here another manufacturer of Klausner hype, someone Lev Grossman (affiliated in some way with the Time magazine; please refer to the "See No Evil" section on this page for a link to his important article).

Btw, it's been a long time since we visited our dear friend former topreviewer John Matlock "Gunny", who, after a long hiatus after his degrading from topreviewers in what 2007 or thereabouts, apparently resurrected and started shitting five-star reviews again. This past February this semi-literate impostor plopped down 52 five-star reviews, which is about two (2) books a day; check it out. As to the rest of our old friends, W.Boudville seems to have slowed down with no other changes -- as before his stuff comes in small hunks of disjointed bull with his trademark four stars all over.

E-mail

I'm sure you all get those solicitation e-mails from Amazon saying, "People who bought or rated books by..." also like books by...

In the last few months, I have started getting suggestions that have nothing to do with any books I've read or rated. I have not even heard of the authors or books they claim to be basing the recommendation on.

Anyone else notice a change? Until recently, the suggested books were based on books I'd purchased. Not anymore.