Phil Oye

The new Neal Stephenson book, Quicksilver, is out. I went to Amazon to check it out and noticed something that I’ve been wondering about for a while. Who is the #1 reviewer? I had seen those badges for Top 100, top 500, etc., but never #1.

Turns out it is Harriet Klausner.

She has 5616 reviews posted. Is she getting paid by Amazon? Can anyone read that many books? Why would anyone put up that many reviews? After quickly glancing through her reviews, I noticed that most are 5 stars with an occasional 4 star review thrown in there. Interestingly, they all follow the same three paragraph structure. Whether Amazon is compensating her or not, I know this, she is not much of a critic.