Michael’s Comments (group member since Nov 18, 2010)

Michael’s comments from the The Extra Cool Group! (of people Michael is experimenting on) group.

Thanks for posting links, and thanks for listening to the Hedgehog! I promise, on WEDNESDAY or SOONER, I'm going to post links to some of my very favorites...and actually start contributing to this group again. Until then, I'll be doing finals and tearing clumps of hair out.

do you want a book? I've really only sent joel books,

Well, not if you're not even going to bother stalking me. Actually, if I see you're reading something I absolutely must read, I'll let you know. I've probably got enough reading for December in a box that Brian just sent me. Brian the Parrot, not the other Brian.

I vote for being in the Polyester Era, but that sounds automatically retro. Do we have to have a Modern Age before we can be in the Post-Modern Age?

Heyo, folks, lets provide some links! For those of us who don't know these reviewers, the names don't mean shit. We're trying to help people find/read these reviews, right?

Hmmm. I've been here since early in '08, but I didn't know anybody until some time in '09, and nobody other than Jacob read my reviews before almost 2010. So, is my age measured in existence years, or socially active years? Trust me, this is vital to my study.

Finally! I've been waiting for something surreal to happen in this group!

Is that like being a Young Whippersnapper? Should I be looking down on newagers? I notice we don't capitalize the word...

People keep talking about Golden Agers, and Silver Agers, and how different people are different ages, and I wanna know WHAT THE HELL AM I? Am I a new jack? More importantly, how are these ages defined, and what happened in them? And what are we now?

This is a thread for you old and wizened golden-agers to indulge in reveries of Goodreads in the days of yore. Tell us what we missed. Face it, now that you're old and washed up, it's all you have to offer.

The Brothers Karamazov is like that with me. I have a very flimsy review of it, which kind of embarrasses me, since there is so much going on in it.

That's the same book I'm too intimidated to try really reviewing! I've just left my review as, "This is my favorite book ever." Short, honest, not especially creative. But, it's all I can say. If I say any more, I'll leave out too much.

No! I like it, too. But these bastards I work for are actually trying to get me to work instead of playing on the internets. I've only had time to keep up, haven't had time to post my favorites. Oh, but I will. So, how long have you been on Goodreads, David? In internet years, you must be a Goodreads geezer to know all these old timers.

Since we have a thread going where people are patting their own backs...I'm not judging, I was in there doing some vote sex work as well...here's a thread where we can post our very favorite reviews we've read by others. Post one, post two, post a handful.

Since this thread is so fun, I'm going to set up another thread of favorite reviews by OTHER reviewers. So, when y'all are done whoring your own reviews, start whoring for others over there.

As an author, I've learned that Amazon book reviewers have tremendous power to sell my books OR convince people NOT to buy them.

I definitely don't trust reviewers on Amazon. A couple years back, the reviewer anonymity was temporarily lifted because of a glitch, and lo and behold, tons of authors had given themselves extremely positive reviews! Also, friends and family members of authors had written glisteningly positive reviews as well. If I remember right, roughly 5% of the site's reviews were written by non-objective parties who hadn't mentioned their lack of objectivity.

Oh, my God. Lester Marrow is my new Favorite author. True Story, sis.

Love is love. Remember that.

The best adverbs are all swear words.

"Promptly give me that dagger."
"Fucking give me that dagger."
The second one is still more immediate, despite the meanings of the two words.

But, yes, adverbs are the bane of English. They should literally and immediately be exiled.

I disagree with most of my favorite authors about books, but I've learned this through actually paying attention to blurbs. George RR Martin endorsed both Tad Williams and Cherie Priest. Mieville is absolutely in love with H P Lovecraft. And McCarthy...well, McCarthy is too busy pounding away at his 1840's typewriter in some dank New Mexican cave to bother blurbing any books. So, I've learned from experience to ignore author blurbs.

Have you learned a lot from reading these books? I imagine one of the lessons you will learn is that if you penetrate too liberally, you might get crabs.

That IS a dilemma I try to keep in mind. Also, I have learned from these books that good guys have a lot of bedroom endurance, women either fall into the category of good girls (who survive!) and sluts (who don't survive!). I've also learned that gigantic, nuclear crabs can only be defeated by flame. What else do you need to know, really?

I've only rejected friend requests from authors pimpin' their wares; that said, if I ever have someone not answer my gateway question, I'm not going to add them. I don't have high expectations for friends: write reviews, comment on threads, add interesting books, or interact with me in some way. Make it clear you are alive, and we're good.

I feel like Goodreads is a Ferrari compared to the horse-and-chariot of conversations about books with most people IRL. On here, I know people who read books in the new weird genre, something nobody I know in real life (other than people I've introduced to the genre) knows about. Hell, IRL, I can't even find anyone who has HEARD OF Cormac McCarthy's The Road. On here, at least a dozen of my friends have read that and a bunch of my other favorites. So, I can have a completely different level of conversation about books on Goodreads.

Why wouldn't Chuck Norris join? We're representing him in our group library.

Unless he remembers that mean letter I sent him...(For more info, check out my review of Chuck Norris's The Secret of Inner Strength!



Who are you calling a vote whore? Shut up.