Amazon ranking

I think getting to the top ranked books on Amazon is rather complicated. Often I have to find a random, then click my way to find the  top amazon ranked books. Then I came across this website, http://ebooktop100.blogspot.in/  They have laid out rankings for easy access. though I am not sure how exactly they get the ranks.  They seem to doing their own inhouse ranking algorithm.  Anyway worth taking a look.

They even have a list of kindle authors have sold a crap load of books.  Informative.  I wonder what I can glean from that. Yeah, write something someone would like to read.  Stop use writing as mental masturbation.  Yeah… You go look on to find their bestseller authors lists.  You tell what I need to learn from it.

Historical fiction vs Historical Fantasy

Ok I’m reading Shogun. So I managed to the swallow the anarchronisms in the book (Karate and Judo in 1600′s Japan really?)  Then I stumble with the naming of the Japanese characters.  The author made up his names for historical figures. It is rather egregious.  Tokugawa becomes Toranaga.  Fujiwara became  Fujimoto.  It reads like a fiction set during America revolution, where George Washington  becomes Joe Blow, and Benjamin Franklin becomes Professor Humpledink.

If  I was ignorant of Japanese history, it would be no matter.  If I was an uber Japanese history nerd, I would quickly know who is who.  But I’m not, and my knowledge is spotty.  So my mind scatters to the four winds as I find myself calculating who is who. Googling might be a bit more difficult.

Shogun was enormously successfully. I believe 15 million copies were sold.  One of its main appeal was that it’s based on historical events.  Readers were genuinely interested in wanting to learn more about  feudal Japan.  Why obscure when you can enlighten, especially in something so trivial in the naming?  No one is fooled that book isn’t based on history.

I know, I know, I’m being picky. However I do think that if you are going to write about a fairly unknown culture or obscure historical period to an American audience, you shouldn’t obscure the history.  Now readers think Ieyasu Tokugawa, the uber dick who ushered 350 years of peace in Japan is Toranaga.  I find that disconcerting.

 

Amazon reviews

With Amazon allowing reviews to be commented on, you get a lot of strange discussions.  Most of the time, people can’t stand to see others didn’t like the book as much as they did.  They post stupid back comments to one-star reviews “It is just abig book.” or “If you hated it so much, why did you read it?” or they do stupid things like point out grammatical errors or even more asinine, “Go write your own book before hating someone else”  As if one needed to be a writer to be a book critique.   Or those whose only comment to the reviews is something to the effect of how the review is an idiot, or an intellectual lightweight.  this they only show by asserting their dubious intellectual cred.

To be honest, there are some inane reviews on Amazons, escpecially the one-star reviews. Personally I think that if you want well-reasoned review, look at the two-stars.  They tend to be more rational and more informative.

However, the commenting has spurred some interesting discussions and there are times when honest discussion is borne, and rationality is restored.  But yeah, these are rare.

Then we have the authors who comment on the reviews, which I find counterproductive.  Though, I do think that it has the effect of making the reviews more polite.  But more often than not, it makes the author look insecure and desperate.  If you are an author, don’t comment on your book reviews.  That only invites pain and shame.

Paypal backtracks on their censorship demands

Passive Guy reports that Paypal has backtracked on their demands. They have limited censorship to ebooks with profane images of bestiality and incest as prohibited by law.  Read here on MSNBC , and on the Paypal blog.  It is good to know I can get my unlimited supply of ‘Gay for StepDaddy’ and ‘Hard for Seabiscuit’ tales on ebook.

 

The help, movie

I saw the film a few days after hearing  how many awards it had won.  I wasn’t too much of a fan of it really.  I think  I am objected to the rather cavalier way in which racism was treated.  Actually, It was the Skeeter character. I hated her.  She put me off the film entirely.  She was such a Mary Sue character.  She is independent.  She wants works.  She holds to the right views.  She’s feisty.  Mary Sue.  Condescendingly so, when she begins to the interview the maids.  Also it struck me that the stakes of writing the book for Skeeter, paled in comparison to the maids’.

Also I found the housewives for the most tritely unlikable.  It was obvious you were supposed to hate them.  No substance to them all.  Nothing compelling from their viewpoint.

And the racism angle was laughable.  Especially towards the end, when the white guy tells Minny that she can have a job for the rest of her life.  I cringed at that.  Hurray, she can be a maid for life.  Hurray…

Abilene was compelling.  Minny was caricaturish.

I understand, it was meant to be a lighthearted story during violently racists times, but really it failed for me on so many levels.  But hey, the book was bestseller. The film had great reviews.  Yeah, I’m beginning to find that my tastes don’t align very much with the public’s.

Washington Square

So I read the novel in one sitting. It was surprisingly quick and easy to read.  I had the impression that Henry James was supposed to be a laborious author , but apparently, the  book was written in his easy period.  As he grew older, he wrote increasingly dense books.

The plot is simple enough.  Rich daughter wants to marry a poor bloke.  Her Aunt, the exhibit of feminine silliness, cheers her on the path of love.  The Daddy, a exhibit of callous rationality,  refuses to bless her relationship.  The simple virtuous daughter is torn between duty to her father and her love.

Right we have seen this before, haven’t we?  Yeah, youthful love against parental control.  The encompassing power of true love.  You would think, but Henry James doesn’t make it that easy you.

The suitor turns out to be a selfish guy who lives of his sister and doesn’t work.  The father is completely right in his assessment of the man–not husband material.

Whom do you root for?  The daughter who is clearly not judging the situation right?  Or the Father who is right but also callous and cold, towards the end of the novel grows manipulative as he tries to make his daughter see the light. A rather bleak but very real situation.

You should read the story to find how it all ends. Don’t be scared that is a classic book with Victorian  prose.  Actually his prose is rather direct unlike Dickens meandering style.  I suggest skipping  a few pages to when the daughter is being courted, if you are worried about dry narrative.  Definitely worth a read though.

 

Paypal and erotica blues

Well I’m libertarian and such I worry more about censorship imposed by the state rather than censorship by private actors. But these days I wonder after I heard news about Paypal refusing sales of erotica with questionable themes from ebook distributors.

There are other alternatives to Paypal, albeit smaller and more expensive alternatives. It would be interesting if the smaller payment processing companies stepped up the plate and offer their services to the ebook distributors.  Money calls.  But distributors don’t care too much to use them.  They get to claim a morality high card.  And since most people don’t care for the questionable content anyway, they are none too ruffled about losing money.

Look, I am not quick cry censorship.  No one is entitled to have their books published. Paypal and these bookstores have a right to determine what sort of books they want to sell.  And Authors are free to sell their content on their own website.  However, the shrinking of the marketplace for ideas is chilling.