Harriet Klausner

Harriet Klausner is the #1 ranked (by Amazon) reviewer of books on Amazon.com, having posted over 17,000 reviews as of August 2008 (her first review was posted on November 21, 1999). In her Amazon.com profile she claims to have been born with the gift of speed-reading and that she reads two books a day. According to her online profile, she was acquisitions librarian in Pennsylvania before writing a monthly review column of recommended books. In 2007, she was named by Time Magazine as one of the 15 of the “web generation’s movers and shakers."

Harriet Klausner has received widespread criticism on various websites [2] [3] , questioning whether or not she actually reads the books she reviews (her reviews contain numerous errors and are limited to plot synopses; also the average daily number of reviews she posts -- five to six -- exceeds the number of books she claims to be able to read). Even her very existence has been doubted, with suggestions made that she may just be a virtual identity created and used by the book publishing industry as a way of promoting their wares. This is supported by the fact that her reviews are always positive. Whether these theories are true is hard to ascertain and although they sound plausible, Harriet Klausner never responds to public inquiries and continues her reviewing quest by appearing on a wide variety of different websites, including her own blogspot [4] ; her average daily output on Amazon.com is about 5.56 reviews (lifetime average, beginning at the end of 1999 till present).

Strangely there are multiple pictures of her on some websites that portray her as an old woman, while some show the picture of Harriet Klausner as a middle-aged woman.

An example is that this reviewer posted 60+ reviews in a one day period. Some of the reviews were for books not yet released.

References

External links

* [http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/AFVQZQ8PW0L Harriet Klausner's Amazon.com profile]
* [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1570726,00.html Time Magazine profile on Harriet Klausner]
* [http://www.opinionjournal.com/la/?id=110006483 Wall Street Journal profile on Harriet Klausner]
* [http://www.reviewcentre.com/consumer_reviews16.html Book Reviews on Review Centre]
* [http://leegoldberg.typepad.com/a_writers_life/2005/03/harriet_klausne.html Doubts as to whether Harriet Klausner is real]
* [http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/000112.html 2nd source doubting Harriet Klausner's existence]
* [http://www.daytondailynews.com/o/content/shared-gen/blogs/dayton/booknook/entries/2007/03/29/the_mysterious_harriet_klausne.html Article in Daytona Daily News]
* [http://www.amazonsellercommunity.com/forums/thread.jspa?threadID=133002&start=0&tstart=0 Amazon Community Discussion]