Her: (watching the tourists at 30 Rock) It’s funny. People come all the way here to see our town.
Me: Yeah. It’s not notice things when we live here.
Had a date night with the wife; we don’t do it often enough but it’s nice when we get around to it. Went to the same place we went around last year.
Afterward, we took a nice stroll back home. It’s good, being tourists in your own city.
———-
Work’s finally slowed down a bit, for better or for worse. Had some time to work on some other projects of mine.
NYer Lionel Trilling once said, “Our culture peculiarly honors the act of blaming, which it takes as the sign of virtue and intellect.” I add that to that old Chateaubriand quote, “You are not superior just because you see the world in an odious light.”
Just don’t get why people think negativism equals reasoned intellect. If anything, unsupported criticism just makes you look like a churl. And a douchebag.
There’s this company with the following business model: for a fee – they’ll read your book and write an honest review of it. So I put my money where my mouth is and requested one.
What I got in return was a scathing review, which was disappointing. But then I read the review closely, noticed some odd things. The reviewer:
- only mentioned the hero in one sentence
- didn’t mention the antagonist – at all
- didn’t mention anything that happened after page 30.
- didn’t mention any themes (revenge, loyalty, etc) or really anything of substance
- instead focused a third of the review on a single minor scene (on page 24) out of 276 pages.
That’s when I realized that this guy just skimmed it, dashed off a review, and took my dough. There’s nuthin honest about that.
And if that wasn’t bad enough, saw that the reviewer, amongst other things:
- doesn’t understand how to use a colon
- doesn’t know the difference between “blonde” and “blond,”
- doesn’t know how to spell “plot lines.”
There’s more, but that’s enough for now. And that’s when I went from being disappointed to feeling ripped-off.
So I actually contacted an editor and told him that I’m not just some disappointed author, I’m someone that reviews books regularly. And I know the difference between a real book review is and a slap-dash quickie dollar.
And I posited this simple question to the editor: “Do you and your company stand by this review?”
- If he doesn’t, I want my money back.
- If he does, I’ll print the review here and let you decide if it’s a valid review.
Should note that when I write a book review, my name is on it. I own it, good or bad. In this blog, on FB, at the NYJB, at Lawline. I own what I put out into the world and I stand by it.
Here’s an anonymous review from someone that clearly doesn’t understand basic rules of English, who didn’t read my book, and tells me it’s no good.
If you read me regularly, you know that I can handle lively debate or a fair disagreement. What I can’t stand is horses__t and bullies.
It’s like that time that guy ran out and said he would drop me. Remember thinking, You must not know ’bout me.
Told that guy to knuckle up and swing because I knew something he didn’t: I was qualified for the task at hand.
As he sulked away, he and I both knew he was not similarly situated.
And now, it appears we’ve arrived at a similar junction.
Location: yesterday, celebrating Easter
Mood: offended
Music: “Do you believe what you’re sayin’?” Yeah right now, but not that often.
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