A Day in the Life

What does your typical day consist of? If you're like most Americans, it might go something like this...Waking up to the alarm clock, grabbing a quick shower, heading out the door, cup of coffee in hand. Arriving at a job where you're overstressed, underpaid, and overcaffeinated for at 8 hour stint. Then coming home, eating an indescribable meal made with hamburger, and spending a few hours of mindless blather with your spouse and/or television set. We prefer the former here, hence no TV. But I digress, as we have other timewasters here, one of which I'm using to procrastinate from having to cook large quantities of chili. There is some variance in our days. Instead of sitting in a cube all day, I spend my day doing strange tricks to try to entice my beast--er, daughter--to perform new skills. Is this much different from what most of you do at the office, though? Anyway, this was a giant tangent, as this post is about a giant in cyberspace and what she does with her time.
Harriet Klausner. Chances are if you are a purchaser at amazon.com you are acquainted with her work if not her name. You see Klausner is amazon's #1 reviewer. This means she has reviewed 9,764 books to date (probably at least 60 more by the time you read this). She has also received 61,504 "helpful" votes. Strangely enough, amazon's second leading reviewer has read 11,080 books and received 63,024 helpful votes so one might wonder what criteria was used to rank reviewers. Klausner has become so well-known in the book world that several major publishers send her every book they publish to review.
A quick search on dates, shows that there are days when Harriet has written over 30 reviews. According to a Washington Post interview in March, Klausner reads 4-5 books a day. Don't get me wrong. I love to read. My bookshelves have taken over the house and I rarely miss the local library booksales. Anyway, fortunately life gets in the way of this type of reading. As a matter I'm convinced even 3 square meals and a few trips to the loo would hold me back from reading 4-5 books per day. Who knows, maybe the publishing companies will offer to pay for Klausner's eye surgery a few years down the road. Reading-induced injury. Harriet's friends (I'm dubious whether she actually has time for them...you can read in the loo but its pretty difficult to read and maintain an intelligent conversation) have apparently tried to entice her into new hobbies. One even bought her a DVD player, which is still sitting in the box.
The depth and insight involved in Harriet's reviews indicate perhaps Harriet has read more back cover blurbs, than actual books. Conversations with The Fat Girl is a deep character study? Almost Perfect is a "fun story." The Great Pretender is "a fabulous insightful family drama with no one unscathed or perfect, which is why the tale is so good."
Harriet, if you're reading this, please get up stretch your legs, take a bathroom break, grab some breakfast and spend the time conversing with family and friends. Cut down your book reading to half. Clean your bathroom. Visit the zoo with your grandchildren. Travel. You may find you have even more to write about.