Nice notes

The second-nicest thing that can happen to you as a book reviewer, non-payment-related division, is to read a good book, review it, and get a note from the author that you actually got what they were going for. Usually, you get silence; occasionally you get rants, raves, and weirdly off-kilter ad hominems for the crime of giving your honest opinion.  
I mean, you don't review books to get pats on the head or attaboys. Sure, you can review in that style, just handing out endless platitudes in order to make authors feel good so they can maybe make you feel good, but kind of defeats the purpose of reviewing. I mean, if you want your ego stroked, there's easier ways to do it than trying to come up with nice things to say about the literary equivalent of Gigli - and believe me, there are a lot of literary equivalents of Gigli out there. 
But it is nice, once in a while, to get a good book, to read a good book, to write extensively on a good book, and to get a nice note on all the effort you put into writing about that good book. I've gotten that three times, and it's a pleasant surprise each time. I won't say which books or which authors; that's not the point. It's just nice to know that, once in a while, it goes both ways.