Yet another mostly anti-Amazon article in the New Yorker

[QuantumIguana]

Originally Posted by UnicornSalesman

The vast majority of self-published books I've come across have been garbage, and they were all 4-5 star books according to Amazon customers. Never again...

Then again, Amazon is the place where Twilight has a better rating than Infinite Jest...

Don't blame Amazon for the popularity of Twilight. Reviews aren't disinterested evaluations of quality apart from how much people enjoyed the book. I have no interest in Twilight myself, but it's quite popular, and many people enjoy it. It would be pointless for me to tell people they are "supposed" to enjoy this book instead of that book.

Twilight has a 4.1 rating as opposed to Infinite Jest's 3.8, but all that shows is you probably want to take a look at more than just the number of stars before buying the book. That some other people liked the book doesn't necessarily mean you will.

By all means, feel free not to read any self-published books. I just find that it really isn't very hard to find the good ones.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by QuantumIguana

Don't blame Amazon for the popularity of Twilight. Reviews aren't disinterested evaluations of quality apart from how much people enjoyed the book. I have no interest in Twilight myself, but it's quite popular, and many people enjoy it. It would be pointless for me to tell people they are "supposed" to enjoy this book instead of that book.

Twilight has a 4.1 rating as opposed to Infinite Jest's 3.8, but all that shows is you probably want to take a look at more than just the number of stars before buying the book. That some other people liked the book doesn't necessarily mean you will.

By all means, feel free not to read any self-published books. I just find that it really isn't very hard to find the good ones.

Besides, recent data dumps confirm that litfic titles don't sell all that much at Amazon. (Relatively speaking.)
Amazon is a place for cheap fun reads more than anything else.
And since fun is in the eye of the reader...

As for Twilight, the movies grossed over $3B. That suggests somebody enjoyed the storyline.

[Fat Abe]

Because Twilight and Infinite Jest have different audiences, comparison of the two books is unjustified. I can understand negative reviews of both titles, for reading is as personal as wearing clothes. It is unfortunate that some people get into an outfit, and see the need to complain about fit, style or quality. Why put it on in the first place? Why continue reading a book you do not like?

The reviews of Infinite Jest are humorous:

Words cannot describe fully how much Wallace's "writing style" annoys me.

It reads like the stream of consciousness of a spoiled 10th grader.

I get that some people really connect with this book, however I found it to be one of the worst books I have ever read. I bet they hand this thing out at Guantanamo.

So boring I didn't finish it. I know he was suppose to be a literary genius, but I think his suicide inflated his reviews. It is rare that I'll read as much as half a book and not follow through to the end, but I didn't think this one was worth the effort.

Amazon is rather cute with book recommendations, but I would like a list of books that they do not recommend, using my ratings of other books. That kind of inference would be bad for business, but refreshingly honest.