Well, when I look through reviews I’m always looking for level-headed positive AND negative reviews. I’ve only written three reviews, all negative. In all three cases I did not like the book, had a dissenting opinion, and believed the favorable reviews were being written by those who believed the Emperor was actually wearing those duds.
If your interested, the books I slammed were “Rabbit, Run” by Updike, “On The Road” by Keroac, and some Nora Roberts tripe.
I just read a couple of pages of the Raddick reviews. Gangs of fun! Thank you, g8rguy, for pointing him out!
My favorite, out of the dozen and a half I read:
Y’all are quite welcome, of course. I figure, someone here at the SDMB introduced me to our hero, I’ll pass along the favor… 
Why? What is so strange about the reviews?
Does anyone else here only pay attention to the negative reviews? I find that the positive reviews usually are trite, being little more than “this is good, buy it”. But with the negative reviews you have to give a reason. It is only in the negative reviews that you constantly see the books (or other items) dissected and examined. Even if I do not agree with them (which is usually much more helpful, and entertaining to read) I seek out the negative reviews.
Did you look at what the book is and read the first review? It’s Steve Wright ish humor. Even if you don’t get it or think it’s funny, you should be able to spot it.
This give me an idea.
Haj
Yeah many of the Amazon reviews are inane & it’s hard to find a disc without a pile of 5-star reviews, but if one digs around one can quickly figure out which reviews & reviewers are worth paying attention to. More to the point, professional reviewers (online or in print sources) aren’t necessarily all that more honest, reliable or free from hype.
I’ve posted a lot (over 200) of reviews to Amazon, though nowadays I’ve actually started reviewing jazz CDs professionally & so I’ve not been paying all that much attention to Amazon (& also it’s dubiously ethical to review a disc for both a paying publication & for no fee for an online site–though in a few cases I’ve done this, writing completely different reviews for each venue). Every so often one gets fan letters, mostly from people thanking me for not posting indiscriminate 5-star reviews. There are various tricks one could use to boost one’s ranking but I’ve never bothered, even though I currently sit below the threshold of 500 in the ranking. There are some entertaining instances of stacking the deck online–my personal favourite was what happened when I gave a negative review to a perfectly frightful jazz trio CD by Mike Longo, Still Swingin’ (here). Two months after it was posted, a flood of 8 five-star reviews appeared within a few days of each other, all of them obviously the work of Longo’s friends & sidemen (Adam Rafferty is a guitarist who has worked with him).
**I e-mailed Harriet Klausner once and complained that I was tired of her *giving pulp romance novels 5-stars * and ignoring real literature entirely. I never received a reply. I’m really sick of her using the same complimentary words in all her freakin’ masterpieces of syncophantism. The whole fucking world is “delightful”, “strong” and "classic **
First, there is nothing wrong with reading pulp romances. One genre does not make one more elitist than the other. I’ve read thousands of romances - all genres - and yes, there are many sucky ones out there. Too many, just like too many sucky mysteries or fantasy. But when there is a good one, a damn skillful writer, it is a wonderful thing to behold.
As a friend said to me, it is not what you read, it is that you read at all that matters.
Second and, lastly, if you want to be vastly amused for a few minutes, pick up (but don’t buy) a copy of *Romatic Times * magazine. It reviews up and coming romance books. Over the course of years I will browse this periodical and just laugh. The highest rating is Five roses. I’ve never seen anything lower than a three, and that is rare. It is an entire sub-culture unto itself.
I have found the reveiws in Amazon helpful, esp. when thinking about purchasing a doll house. One person basically said the one I was looking at was a monster to move and took up a huge chunk of space. I appreciated it and changed my mind.
Did anyone see all the fake reviews for the Nimbus 2000 (harry potter broom) toy while they were up? They’ve since been deleted but they were really OBVIOUS fakes, which was too bad because they could have been funny.
Basically the gist of them (and there were several) was that the broom vibrates, and that people were finding that their son’s older female siblings seemed to “really enjoy” the broom. They were all written in the same style, and they were written like a badly told joke.
When Amazon first started accepting revies several years ago , I wrote a few. Well I wrote a very good one for the book The Glory of Their Times by Lawrence Ritter. It is an excellent book on the early years of baseball told by those who played. It is about 30-40 years since it was first published. So I wrote this review and several months later I got a email from lawrence Ritter himself. He said he was pleased I liked the book and would I like an autographed copy…first edition no less. Umm, yeah that would be cool. No problem a few weeks late it showed up. Personally signed and everything. Pretty cool , I thought.
What an interesting thread. I’ve reviewed a few books on Amazon until I found Amazon supported a whole host of sites/companies/organizations with which I did not agree.
I usually, as KidCharlemagne gave negative reviews. Unless a book was a real winner, I see no reason to review it. Most books, I imagine, as most things, are mediocre. I guess there are professional reviewers who actually get paid for it, but I did it to inform.
I usually buy books at my local Humane Society Thrift store, so price is not a major concern (paperbacks .50) and I usually buy 10 or so at a time. I buy mostly if I like the looks or the first few pages, or I recognize the author.
Haven’t even been on the site in about a year, but I’ll have to check out Henry Raddick. Sounds like my kind of guy.
Perhaps you could give us some examples?
UnuMondo
UnuMondo
Some examples of folks I don’t think Amazon should support:
Grace Cathedral:
http://www.gracecathedral.org/amazon/a_index.shtml
Anglican Church
http://www.stelizabeths-anglican.org/amazonstorefront.htm
Saab Network (Saab Autos)
http://www.saabnet.com/tsn/amzlink.html
Transcendentalists
http://www.transcendentalists.com/support.htm
??? I don’t know but this just doesn’t sound right…a Library?
http://www.johnsburglibrary.org/support.htm
Planned Parenthood
http://www.plannedparenthood.org/store/booksread.html
Spinsanity (one of the best level headed political sites today)
http://www.spinsanity.org/donations.html
FTR I really like Spinsanity and I still read it. I did object to the Amazon link and told them so, this is their reply:
Good Guys
FSMA
http://www.fsma.org/amazon.shtml
WWF (No, not the World Wrestling Federation)
Sermon follows:
My feeling is that Amazon is like the WalMart of the book/toys/games/software/etc. world. They have been in biz about 10 years and have lost money in 8 or 9 of them. The only reason they’re in business today is venture capitol or maybe outright gifts. I say support you local book store, and forget about Amazon. We’ve had several book stores go out of business here in the last few years, but we do have some still doing business. As I said, I take what’s available at the Humane Society thrift shop, and if I really need a book, I get it locally. I bought one book from Amazon (for my son, 'cause he wanted it right away) and that’s it. The local store could have got it in a week and Amazon shipped in the two days, so I was pleased, I just don’t like them. Period.
Uh, I’m not really familar with Amazon’s policies, but can’t just about anyone sign up to have an Amazon storefront? Because the links you give, well, that’s what they look like.
I am an Amazon “associate”, and I get commissions for recommending Amazon.com books on my websites. They PAY me. (Last quarter’s commission helped pay for my flat panel monitor! 
) Do you object to me being “supported” by Amazon.com as well?
Those are just organizations that have a link to Amazon.com to allow their members to buy books cheaply and conveniently. How can you say Amazon.com “supports” their views? If Amazon.com sells a book by the Transcendalists, for example, they get more in royalties from the Amazon.com sales annually than they would through those links in the same time, which don’t tend to bring any real money at all.
As far as I recall, they have been in the black independent of venture capital for the last two years.
Screw my local bookstore. In all the towns I’ve lived in the local bookstore is usually some tiny mom-and-pop shop that’s badly organized and full of dusty books that in some places are mildewing, the staff are nerds or weirdos, and the selection sucks. I don’t want to turn this thread into a thread about Amazon.com destroying local bookstores, but I personally favour Amazon.com (and big chains like Barnes & Noble and Borders) to locally owned stores. Why? Well, those stores are organized better and the books are treated decently. Local bookstores always have a few broken spines, large bookstores can dispose of those and put a book in fresh condition on the shelf. Pro-locals like to talk about supporting the community, but if a store doesn’t have a book I want and takes longer to get it for me than another store, it isn’t worth supporting. Pro-locals also talk about how local bookstores also have more knowledgeable staffs that can recommend books. Well, I don’t like getting book recommendations from people who know nothing about me. I’ll decide on my own what to read, thanks. Amazon.com fulfills my order without asking “Well, if you like that, you’d definitely like [points to book that has nothing to do with anything I’m interested in]” They give you occaisionally accurate recommendations, sure, but those don’t keep me captive as I’m struggling to get away from the cash register and on with my life.
UnuMondo
There are good points and bad points to the anybody-can-review at Amazon. The most recent review of my own book is a resounding 1 star, and I suspect it would be lower if it could be. The thing is, I can’t for the life of me understand the review, and I suspect the reviewer didn’t even read my book. Maybe they read the “Look Inside!” pages on Amazon. Yet a single hit-and-run review like that can drag down your rating.
Amazon:
http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/research/profile.asp?Symbol=AMZN
I included the link for Barnes and Noble as comparison:
http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/research/profile.asp?Symbol=BKS
I wouldn’t consider Amazon’s Income of -282.3 Mil for the last 12 months as ‘being in the black’, however, ymmv.
I don’t know how they can continue unless they start making money.
I guess my opinion probably hinges on how you define support. This is one of those typical ‘you scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours’ arrangements. Amazon, however, gets the free advertising because even if you don’t buy, you see the link.
I compared them to Walmart in a previous post and they are like them (ubiquitous), but they need to learn the art of making money from Walmart.
It’s pretty simple really, you like Amazon and I don’t. I only use them for my purposes, i.e, Henry Raddick.
Coulda sworn I’d already posted here, but perhaps not.
I reviewed a book on Amazon once. I gave it a totally favorable review; it’s one of my favorite books ever.
The next day, I received an e-mail from the author (Daniel Pinkwater), thanking me for the review. That was incredibly awesome.