I agree with your reasons for writing literary reivews and your points about why some people do reviews for the wrong reasons. As a writer myself I prefer to spend more time on my own stuff and reading is an enjoyment not a job. Although I publish reviews on the internet I am less prolific than most of the other people I know who write reviews. For myself it's more about learning to analyse the different aspects of a story and be a more critical thinker and then writer, rather than for any personal gain or glory.

Hi Dave, thanks for your comments. I do get what you are saying. Obviously lots of people like Dan Brown because they buy his books and go to the films based on his books. He's very successful. Art is relative to the eye of the beholder to misquote everybody :D So one man's poor literary choice is another's pinnacle of entertainment. It's all about who is making the judgement. My post on the other hand is less about how I might personally feel about being told by a souless bit of web script that I write like Dan Brown, and more how absurdly out of hand a small thing like this can take over not only the web, but even supposed bastions of "higher" journalism (something else which is extremely subjective). I find it kinda crazy that people are sending the guy/gal who created this thing hate e-mail because they didn't get the result they wanted and have discovered flaws in his analytical tools.

Thanks Liz! I knew that you would approve. What I forgot to mention in my post was that I watched and learned from you in your journey to become a published mystery author. Your experience with online genre groups was significant factor when I decided to make a commitment to writing that I would go about it the "right" way this time.

Hi Campbell, thanks so much for visiting me. I enjoyed your blog as well and look forward to reading more of it.

Hi Ed, thanks for visiting and telling me about your process. As you can see we are very different. I really enjoy the revising process of writing. Although I probably do more than others, I'm a little obsessive I think.