My books have received a number of reviews, mostly good, some bad. I don't really have a problem with most of the bad ones, as long as the person has actually read the book and has legitimate criticism. But occasionally people will write reviews that are basically just "this book sucks", which aren't really useful to anyone*. This happened with a string of reviews on Amazon for OpenGL Game Programming, and now it's happened with the latest Amazon review of Beginning OpenGL Game Programming. The review, which is accompanied by the lowest rating, states:

As a professional developer, I was curious and flipped through this booka at a Barnes and Nobles. I normally would not take the time out of my day to write a review, however, I feel this is a waste of money, as most books on game programming.

The main thing that bothers me about this review is that Amazon greenlighted it. The reviewer states that he didn't actually read the book, and provides no explaination of why he considers it a waste of money. Why does Amazon allow reviews like this to waste space and waste the time of potential buyers?

As a technical author, I'd like to make a request of anyone reading this. If you read a book you like and that you think others would benefit from, take a moment to review it *somewhere*. Say what specifically you liked about it, and if there are things that could have been better, mention them as well. If you didn't like the book and you want to review it, be fair. Realize that you may not have been in the target audience for the book.

Oh, and if you have an Amazon account and agree with me about the uselessness of this review, you may want to use the "report this" link under the review to see if we can get them to remove it.


* - btw, the "this book rocks" type of reviews aren't really any better. As an author, I'd like to know what people liked about it, and I'm sure potential buyers would like to know as well.