Hatchet Jobs! When Reviewers Attack

The History of Literature

Jacke Wilson

History, Books, Arts

4.6 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 24 August 2020

⏱️ 68 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The vast majority of book reviews are informative and genteel. What books get that treatment, and why? Jacke and Mike take a look at the some of the most savage book reviews of all time. Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/shop. (We appreciate it!) Find out more at historyofliterature.com, jackewilson.com, or by following Jacke and Mike on Twitter at @thejackewilson and @literatureSC. Or send an email to [email protected]. The History of Literature Podcast is a member of the Podglomerate Network. Learn more at www.thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature. *** This show is a part of the Podglomerate network, a company that produces, distributes, and monetizes podcasts. We encourage you to visit the website and sign up for our newsletter for more information about our shows, launches, and events. For more information on how The Podglomerate treats data, please see our Privacy Policy. Since you're listening to The History of Literature, we'd like to suggest you also try other Podglomerate shows surrounding literature, history, and storytelling like Storybound, Micheaux Mission, and The History of Standup. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	The History of Literature Podcast is a member of the Podglamorate Network and LIT Hub Radio.
0:07.0	Hello. Every year, over 1 million books are published throughout the world.
0:15.0	Even the most energetic readers can only read a tiny percentage of that.
0:19.0	How do we know which ones to choose?
0:21.0	Enter the book reviewer, that intrepid arbiter of taste, who passes judgment
0:26.4	on the books that come his or her way. Sometimes they issue rave reviews, and authors
0:31.8	who've toiled for years can pop open the champagne or at least rest easy
0:36.9	until the next review which could be negative or misguided or just indifferent.
0:42.4	We're talking about a million books people. They can't
0:46.1	all be gems. And then there's another kind of review where the reviewer who
0:51.2	perhaps cares about books as much as any author and perhaps has had his or her fill of reading a certain kind of book works up a full head of steam.
1:01.0	This book, this book, this book, this will never do. And instead of protecting the tree
1:12.0	or at least just passing it by the reviewer pulls out a hatchet.
1:16.2	Chop chop chop, chop, attack, attack, attack.
1:19.6	This book and this author are going down.
1:23.0	Felled like a tree at the hands of a burly lumberjack.
1:27.0	Why do they do it?
1:29.0	Sometimes the motives are pure.
1:31.0	They might want to save the reading public from a bad experience.
1:35.2	They might want to tell the author that he or she can do better.
1:38.6	Or the reviewer might have a political agenda or a personal one. They might just want to have some fun.
1:46.6	And these reviews are fun or they can be. If you love books, you probably rely on reviews at
	...

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