Harriet Klausner
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Harriet Klausner | |
|---|---|
| Born | May 20, 1952 |
| Died | October 15, 2015 (aged 63) |
| Occupation | Newspaper columnist |
| Known for | Top ranked book reviewer on Amazon.com |
Harriet Klausner (May 20, 1952 – October 15, 2015)[1][2] was an amateur reviewer of books and a newspaper columnist.[3] She was the #1 ranked reviewer on Amazon.com for many years, and at the time of her death held the No. 1 spot in Amazon's reviewer "Hall of Fame".[1]
Klausner grew up in the Bronx and her father was an employee of McGraw-Hill.[4] Klausner was a former librarian with a master's degree in library science, who was proficient in speed-reading.[4] Reportedly, "ailments (kept) her home and insomnia (kept) her up". She resided in Atlanta.[2]
Klausner professed in her online profiles to read two books a day,[5] but a 2007 profile of her in Time reported that she read four to six books per day.[6] This article named Klausner in its top 15 list of the "web generation's movers and shakers".[6] In an interview published in The Wall Street Journal in 2005, she stated that her goal for reviewing was to bring attention to "lesser-known" authors who "don't have a publicity machine behind them. That's the whole purpose of my doing this on Amazon".[4] She read mostly romance, thrillers and science fiction.[1]
Work
By the time of her death, Klausner had reviewed 31,014 books, most on Amazon.[1] As well as posting many reviews on the Amazon website, Klausner also posted reviews on several other websites, including Barnes & Noble; Books 'n' Bytes; SFF Net; on-line magazine Of Ages Past; and SF Site.[7][8][9][10][11]
She was the #1 "top reviewer" on Amazon.com until October 24, 2008, when the company began a new ranking system, placing another reviewer in the top spot.[12] At the time of her death in 2015, Klausner was ranked No. 2,447.[1] Amazon kept her at No. 1 in its reviewer "Hall of Fame", a symbolic nod to her contributions.[1]