Amazon pulls some of its online book reviews

The New York Times has revealed what a lot of us already suspected: you can't trust all the reviews on the Amazon website.

According to an article published this week, up to thousands of reviews have been deleted without explanation from the Seattle-based online retailer's site.

Reporter David Streitfeld pointed out that one of Amazon's most prolific reviewers, Harriet Klausner, had written more than 25,000 reviews.

That's a hell of a lot of book reading for the former acquisitions librarian, who has been an Amazon Hall of Fame Reviewer 11 times since 2000.

If you're in need of a laugh, check out this list of worst books ever written, which appeared on Goodreads.com in 2008. Twilight (#1) topped the list, but I would have voted for Ann Coulter's Guilty: Liberal "Victims" and Their Assault on America, which came sixth.