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Saturday, September 11, 2021

The Goodreads Reviewer

Authors hold a strange place in our cultural imagination. Even if readers revere them, the scope and economics of publishing mean very few of today's authors become superstars. Most are just ordinary people, many of whom have debts and day jobs and little experience dealing with the public--fans or otherwise. Some also have plenty of time to mess around on the internet, and for those authors Goodreads is kryptonite. For every well-considered review on the book recommendations site, positive or negative, there's a Goodreads user who puts factually inaccurate opinions about books, or who lazily resorts to snark, to one-word reviews that tell readers nothing but "meh."

Maris Kreizman, The New York Times Book Review, October 6, 2019

1 comment:

  1. I found a two-dollar book in a dollar store piled in with a bunch of others. It was an autographed first edition. I bought the doggone thing just because it made me sad to think of how hopeful the author must have felt as he signed it with a little flourish... and now it's one step away from the landfill or recycling plant.

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