W.Boudville's Quest for Credibility

As is well known by now, W.Boudville possesses an impeccably positive (four stars) reviews record of a humanly impossible gigantic size. Having reviewed half a dozen scientific treatises a day for a very long time, he probably realised at last that no one can believe he actually reads these books, especially since his ratings are overwhelmingly positive (he likes four stars, probably in a mistaken opinion that an all-four- , rather than all-five-star record will make his record look less absurd).

Could this be an explanation of his strangest ever habit of, once in a blue moon, picking a book or two and slamming it on most idiotic grounds? Just so he has some negative reviews? Today we have another recurrence of this inexplicable pattern: he reviewed two books, one, a computer book published in 1980, which he slammed for being obsolete, and another one, titled Teach Yourself Basic Computer Skills, which he slams for being too basic ! :O

You just can't make up stuff like that. Truly.

Those Harriet supporters can be found in the strangest places

Interesting discussion on Harriet and her reviews on the Amazon Romance Forums, it's always refreshing to read comments from those who haven't been jaded by the whole Harriet reviewing machine. I did see one comment that gave me a few good chuckles,

"I have trusted Harriet's reviews for years and I have seen lots of negative reviews from her." Now, if I'm not mistaken we've only seen one three star review from Harriet and nothing lower.

"If she gives a book a great review especially if it is a new author I have never heard of I buy it and she is usually hits it right on the nail." Really and truly?

"I find her reviews accurate and compelling and not a copy of the back cover........ " I'm not even touching that one.

Is there a Harriet wannabe in the top rankings at Amazon UK?

Horrors! Can it be true? Is it Klausnergate? A top reviewer at Amazon UK (current ranking #18) who pops out a healthy number of reviews on an almost daily basis and even states on his profile page in part, "All I can do is give a brief synopsis of the contents of the book and the author's background (if I know it). Criticism is a dangerous area. After all just because I do not like a book does not mean that everyone else will think the same. " Now doesn't that have a familiar ring to it!

But wait, there's more. According to recent comments on said reviewer's reviews, it appears the Brits may finally be on to him and discussions are quite lively at times and in defending himself said reviewer may have opened up another can of worms. Every one remember top ranked Gunny who gave nothing but glowing five star reviews and then turned around and sold those very same books as like new? See his comment here when challenged about whether he'd read the book (and I'll quote in case it's deleted),

"If you would like to give me your e-mail address I will forward the electronic receipt for sale of the said book by me on Amazon. The same goes for the Terry Pratchett book Sourcery. I am sat here wondering why I have to justify myself to you, but to clear things up once and for all I am prepared to make an exception. I always sell books after I have reviewed them, there is no point in keeping a book that you have read and anyway"

Interesting, is he receiving free books from the publishers and turning around and selling them? Thoughts?

"The HARP Variations"

Have others noticed a striking change in the instant growth of Grady Harp's surreal vote totals? Time was he'd break 150 to 200 or so 'helpfuls' within a couple of days, even were he reviewing a used kleenex or a burnt out match. Nowadays, the same absurd vote totals continue to occur, but never within a few days or on his opening page. There one sees, instead, the new tactic of slow, steady, though finally still preposterous growth. Are we to find it probable that hundreds of people who used to vote for Harp astonishingly quickly and oddly in sync have on their own suddenly decided to take it slowly and let the numbers climb into the stratosphere only on less visited older pages? The hypothesis of a single Wizard of Oz serving as his own principal voter - but now seeking to deflect criticism from persons not born yesterday - emerges as the most economical explanation.

Ho ho ho

Here:

Top Reviewers

The ballots are in. The votes have been counted. Let's hear it for our Top Reviewers--selected by Amazon.com customers like you. These clear-minded critics voiced their opinions about Amazon.com items. In turn, they supplied their fellow shoppers with helpful, honest, tell-it-like-it-is product information. Please join us as we salute this topnotch group of review writers.

Yes! For example, Grady Harp... ("selected by customers like you"), or, when it comes to "clear-minded critics [...] supplied their fellow shoppers with helpful, honest, tell-it-like-it-is product information" -- who comes to mind? Why but of course it's Harriet Klausner, W.Boudville, John Matlock "Gunny", etc., etc. Yes! That's why we set up this blog, right, precisely: to "salute this topnotch group of review writers".

Hiring ten Amazon reviewers!

Here is a curious message:

Amazon.com book reviewers

Looking for book reviewers with current Amazon.com REAL NAME account. We will hire 10 reviewers for our 120 or so titles on amazon, and will pay $5 per review posted. Please reply to this note with resume. A bit about our books: [...]

Some Things Are Forever

There may not always be an England, but it looks like there'll always be a J.P.Picks. One by one out of the woodwork there invariably crawls a presumably vote hungry, astonishingly blatant sycophant eager to laud even the worst boilerplate posted by Grady Harp, the Maestro of the preposterous vote totals. The likes of Bette Dravis ("Keep your Pen Hot"), " Daniel Perez" ("Oh, Grady"), and Cindy Tardiff have kept alive the tradition of the remarkable J.P.Picks; one after the other, they too have unconvincingly oohed and aahed, only to disappear and cut short one's enjoyment of their shameless flattery. But there's no need to despair - after any short lull, a newbie on the rise is certain to appear as successor. The latest to fill the role is one ken O' connell. Anyone in need of a laugh is advised to check out his comment at the foot of Harp's review of the recent Bob Dylan movie. It's fully Picks-worthy.