I agree with Deda, when I start reading a review and it is negative I get disgusted with the "reviewer" not the author of the book. It doesn't change my choice to buy or not. Giving an honest opinion is great and needed, but getting downright mean and nasty is wrong.

[ January 04, 2006, 10:42 AM: Message edited by: Norah ]

Sigrid I agree that you should just let it go and when others post, those two mean spirited reviews will melt away.

I read reviews all the time of books I am checking into purchasing. They do not make or make my decision. I take the time to check out all the features Amazon offers such as the title of contents and an excerpt if possible. Those are the selling points for me--not the reviews.

Sounds like your book is doing well anyway, so I think you should just wait and see. Good luck sweetie.

Sandpiper

Norah & Sandpiper:

Thanks a lot. I'm the same way. I do that with movies as well. Just because Ebert gives a film two thumbs up doesn't mean that I'll like it at all. I have to believe that my true customers will feel that way too.

I delivered a great speech today at my mother's Newcomer club. There were over 60 people there and I talked all about hip replacement and sold five books on top of the honorarium that I received :-) That made me feel better!

Happy new year everyone and many, many thanks for the warm words and encouragement.

Sigrid

Sigrid, not to worry. I went to Amazon to read the reviews. The one by the health care provider is rather snippy and snotty and snobby. Anyone reading it will see that she almost deliberately set the review up to be snotty! She reserved the review until after her own surgery so she could "compare notes." And yes, it is as if she is "blaming the victim." The other review mentions the health care system in Canada which is different than USA and has its own set of problems to deal with. You have so many endorsements and wonderful reviews. You've done such a great service by writing about this surgery. Don't worry about that recent review!

Thanks so much for checking it out, Lynn. You're right. I had the same feeling about her but I'm biased. LOL.

The really frustrating thing is that I felt that she didn't get it at all and that she was blaming me. She said that I had a fear of needles -- not true! I have a B12 deficiency and I get an injection of vitamin B12 once a month. No fear there. The reason that I didn't donate my own blood was because I have fainted several times with a needle in my arm, not out of fear but out of weakness.

The blood thing is important because I needed another transfusion but I told my surgeon I was fine with him giving me blood from the blood bank but he didn't want to do that again.

And I did not deliberately delay my surgery in order to make myself miserable. The first surgeon, who very reluctantly offered to operate on me when I was 48, told me that he hated doing the surgery on someone under 50 and that there was a good chance that I could end up in a wheelchair. So, for obvious reasons, I didn't have faith in him and went looking for another man who put me on an 18 month wait list.

Anyway, I've been obsessing about this bad review for days. Have to get over it. Thanks for offering your impartial perspective :-)

Sigrid