Paul's comments (member since Dec 01, 2007)

Paul's comments from the Goodreads Librarians group.

Dear all - apparently there are two Tony Kushners, which are mixed up here

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/358...

There's the Angels in America guy and the Holocaust scholar....

That sounds like a plan - now who will go through every art book and get them straightened out? Need someone with severe OCD.

PS - also - is it correct to list the artist as an author of books of his paintings? I see this done quite often too.

Dear all - quite a few art books have a preface by a named author but no named editor - Taschen do this a lot. I see that many books are listed with Taschen as the author and some from this publisher are listed under the name of the author who wrote the preface - which is the preferred method? When is it right to list the publisher as the author?

It's not confusion, the issues are clear enough, but it's a strange thing. On the one hand, take Sarah's famous review of The Lovely Bones

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/670...

If you haven't read it, you should, it's devastating. It may well have put many many people off reading that particular novel. I know it put me off. But the author can't complain about that. Then, consider a really pleasant photo of the author which a librarian puts onto Alice Sebold's profile. This is in order to render the author page more friendly and attractive, more human - it verges on promotion. But this act of niceness by Goodreads, this is the thing we're afraid the author or someone may possibly get annoyed about - even to the extent of suing! Alice can't sue us for saying she's the world's worst novelist but she can sue us for putting up a photo of her looking cool. You have to admit it's just a little bit topsyturvy.

Rivka - I confess I'm still mystified why Goodreads would be nervous of showing a nice flattering photo of an author whilst at the same time NOT being nervous about publishing the most scurrilous and insulting reviews! It's kind of a contradiction, don't you think? Okay - one is protected by free speech and the other might just possibly enrage the photographer as he thinks we are stealing the bread out of the mouths of his children (something like that.) But I confess I find the juxtaposition remarkable.

No no, I enjoy scurrilous and grossly insulting reviews! I've written a couple myself!

I confess I'm still mystified why Goodreads would be nervous of showing a nice photo of an author whilst at the same time publishing the most scurrilous and insulting reviews! It's kind of a contradiction, don't you think?

I'm back with another one - if we upload a perfectly nice author picture and someone (agent, whoever) complains, surely they can't sue us because Goodreads is actually promoting this author by making a nice author profile that will encourage readers. Why would they want to sue us for a photo if they can't sue us for the many many defamatory reviews we publish here? Doesn't make sense to me.

Let me then ask a different version of this question : have we ever been busted? Has anyone in the history of Goodreads (long, distinguished) ever said "Oi, you there - yes you! That's my picture! What are you doing with it, you orrible book-lovers! Get it off your foul website immediately!"

I'd like to ask fellow librarians if you've actually emailed anyone a request to use a particular author photo and what response did you get?

Okay, no problem

I think we have now added info about the major book prizes to the relevant books; do you think it would be worth adding that a book is included in the 1001 Books you should Read before you Die which seems to be quite a popular guide...?

Noam Chomsky needs attention from someone who knows if the plethora of slightly-different-titles are really different books.

Thanks!

I have been a librarian for months but now I'm going to various "combine editions" pages and it isn't working. Have you thrown me out?

Do all the reviews attached to the Not A Book stay there or can they be transferred over to the real book?

For instance

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21764...

So now we have Angela's Ashes listed under Frank McCourt (the author!) and under Emily Watson (the actress!). I think this is one of those times when the info has been automatically uploaded from Amazon & they have this dvd wrongly categorised as a book. Given all this, what should we do? (There may be many other examples like this, I haven't looked yet.)

I just added the Hugo and Nebula award winners for SF - what other awards need adding? (I was going to look at the Booker winners too.)

I think I was responsible for this foolish error, so i have fixed it. Please have another look, should be the right books under the right Andre Dubus now. I undestand Mr Dubus was more imaginative in his literary endeavours than in his baby naming.