servers of Amazon.com noticed something peculiar this week: the company’s Canadian site had suddenly revealed the identities of thousands of people who had anonymously posted book reviews on the United States site under signatures like “a reader from New York.”
The weeklong glitch, which Amazon fixed after outed reviewers complained, provided a rare glimpse at how writers and readers are wielding the online reviews as a tool to promote or pan a book — when they think no one is watching.
Apparently a number of authors were caught, embarrassingly, praising their own work, and the review sections have become battle zones between warring groups of writers.
I used to enjoy the Amazon reviews, but I think the golden age is over. In particular I used to look out for reviews by Henry Raddick on the US site, but alas the great man hasn’t posted a review now for nearly a year. He had a style all his own, and rather than quote him, I direct you to his reviews here.
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