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Old 02-25-2011, 01:41 PM
 
Location: Canada
7,263 posts, read 9,268,126 times
Reputation: 9833

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Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnHAdams View Post
I'm not sure what to make of reviews. I go to Amazon, the vast majority of the books are reviewed as somewhere in between three and four stars. I also believe that a lot of people will give a book one star without reading it. They just don't like something about the author or the books message.

The Hour Game by David Baldacci only netted an overall three star rating at Amazon. I thought it was brilliant. A lot of people thought it was too complicated and nuked it for that reason. I thought I got more for my money.
This was in the pre-Amazon days and the reviews of Clancy's book that were not so positive were in a newspaper book review section. I take those reviews a bit more seriously than I would an Amazon review. I take all reviews with a grain of salt - but if they are well-written and well thought out, I am more likely to give weight to them.
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Old 02-25-2011, 03:06 PM
 
Location: Sunshine state
2,539 posts, read 3,722,870 times
Reputation: 4001
Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnHAdams View Post
I often wonder what is happening to the life of a best selling author that may affect whether they write a masterpiece. Or a stinker. Are their studies on this? Theories?
If an author is famous enough, you'll find out a lot about him / her on the internet. Often times, the reasons are deeply personal yet they affect their writing significantly.

There's one author that I have faithfully followed since her first published book. She's still writing but her recent books have been hit or miss. The 'old' voice is still there but I could tell something is off (sometimes it's the characterization, sometimes it's the plot, sometimes it's the pacing of the story, etc). Then I found out that this author has been battling some sickness (thyroid or something, can't remember exactly), that's affecting her creativity so badly that she almost quit writing altogether.

Then there's another author whom I also love because her books were my ultimate comfort read: light read, witty, and often laugh out loud funny. Then all of a sudden she changed her style. Her books are now dark, depressing, and heart-wrenching. I found out through a recent interview that this author has lost her husband suddenly in a tragic accident, so I guess her recent books are reflection of her grief.

Then there’s an author who simply switched genre and it’s as if the newer books were written by a different person using the same name. Maybe they were written by a different person since ghost authoring is so common these days. Who knows? I simply stopped reading and stopped caring.
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Old 03-03-2011, 02:22 AM
 
Location: Tennessee
37,768 posts, read 40,902,683 times
Reputation: 62071
I read nonfiction and I absolutely hate it when well known writers (I won't name them) do what I call List Books like The 50 Worst Blah, Blah, Blah, The Top 100 People For Blah, Blah, Blah or they do some complilation of their "greatest hits" (essays, quotes from their other books, etc.)
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