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The Big Question
A television producer launches an ambitious reality show in 2012 that irrevocably changes broadcasting history, in a tale populated by such characters as a genius teen prostitute, a scotch-sipping septuagenarian, and a Kentucky rube.
- GenresFiction
288 pages, Hardcover
First published May 1, 2007
5 people are currently reading
91 people want to read
About the author
Chuck Barris
15 books21 followersCharles Hirsch "Chuck" Barris was an American game show creator, producer, and host. He is best known for hosting The Gong Show and creating The Dating Game and The Newlywed Game. He is also a songwriter, who wrote the hit "Palisades Park", and the author of Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, a story about himself that became a film directed by George Clooney.
Barris was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He attended Drexel Institute of Technology where he was a columnist for the student newspaper, The Triangle. He graduated in 1953.
Barris got his start in television as a page and later staffer at NBC in New York City, and eventually worked backstage at the TV music show American Bandstand, originally as a standards-and-practices person for ABC. Barris soon became a music industry figure. He produced pop music on records and TV, but his most successful venture was writing "Palisades Park". Barris also wrote or co-wrote some of the music that appeared on his game shows.
Barris was promoted to the daytime programming division at ABC in Los Angeles and was put in charge of deciding which game shows ABC would air. Barris told his bosses that the pitches of game show concepts were worse than Barris' own ideas. They suggested that he quit his ABC programming job and become a producer.
Barris formed his production company Chuck Barris Productions on June 14, 1965. Barris first became successful during 1965 with his first game show creation, The Dating Game, on ABC. The show would air for eleven of the next fifteen years and be revived twice in the 1980s and 1990s.
The next year Barris began The Newlywed Game, originally created by Nick Nicholson and E. Roger Muir, also for ABC. The combination of the newlywed couples' humorous candor and host Bob Eubanks's sly questioning made the show another hit for Barris. The show is the longest lasting of any developed by his company, running for a total of 19 full years on 'first run' TV, network and syndicated.
Barris created several other short-lived game shows for ABC in the 1960s and for syndication in the 1970s, all of which revolved around a common theme. Barris also made several attempts through the years at non-game formats, such as ABC's Operation Entertainment; a CBS revival of Your Hit Parade; and The Bobby Vinton Show. The latter was his most successful program other than a game show.
Barris became a public figure in 1976 when he produced and served as the host of the talent contest spoof The Gong Show. The show's cult status far outstripped the two years it spent on NBC (1976–78) and the four years it ran in syndication (1976–80).
Barris continued strongly until the mid-1970s, when ABC cancelled the Dating and Newlywed games. This left Barris with only one show, his weekly syndicated effort The New Treasure Hunt. But the success of The Gong Show in 1976 encouraged him to revive the Dating and Newlywed games, as well as adding the $1.98 Beauty Show to his syndication empire. He also hosted a short lived primetime variety hour for NBC from February to April 1978, called The Chuck Barris Rah-Rah Show, essentially a noncompetitive knock-off of Gong.
In Barris's biography, he claims to have worked for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) as an assassin in the 1960s and the 1970s. A 2002 feature film version, directed by George Clooney and starring Sam Rockwell, depicts Barris as killing 33 people. Barris wrote a sequel, Bad Grass Never Dies, in 2004.
Barris published Della: A Memoir of My Daughter in 2010 about the death of his only child, who died in 1998 after a long struggle with drug addiction.
Barris was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He attended Drexel Institute of Technology where he was a columnist for the student newspaper, The Triangle. He graduated in 1953.
Barris got his start in television as a page and later staffer at NBC in New York City, and eventually worked backstage at the TV music show American Bandstand, originally as a standards-and-practices person for ABC. Barris soon became a music industry figure. He produced pop music on records and TV, but his most successful venture was writing "Palisades Park". Barris also wrote or co-wrote some of the music that appeared on his game shows.
Barris was promoted to the daytime programming division at ABC in Los Angeles and was put in charge of deciding which game shows ABC would air. Barris told his bosses that the pitches of game show concepts were worse than Barris' own ideas. They suggested that he quit his ABC programming job and become a producer.
Barris formed his production company Chuck Barris Productions on June 14, 1965. Barris first became successful during 1965 with his first game show creation, The Dating Game, on ABC. The show would air for eleven of the next fifteen years and be revived twice in the 1980s and 1990s.
The next year Barris began The Newlywed Game, originally created by Nick Nicholson and E. Roger Muir, also for ABC. The combination of the newlywed couples' humorous candor and host Bob Eubanks's sly questioning made the show another hit for Barris. The show is the longest lasting of any developed by his company, running for a total of 19 full years on 'first run' TV, network and syndicated.
Barris created several other short-lived game shows for ABC in the 1960s and for syndication in the 1970s, all of which revolved around a common theme. Barris also made several attempts through the years at non-game formats, such as ABC's Operation Entertainment; a CBS revival of Your Hit Parade; and The Bobby Vinton Show. The latter was his most successful program other than a game show.
Barris became a public figure in 1976 when he produced and served as the host of the talent contest spoof The Gong Show. The show's cult status far outstripped the two years it spent on NBC (1976–78) and the four years it ran in syndication (1976–80).
Barris continued strongly until the mid-1970s, when ABC cancelled the Dating and Newlywed games. This left Barris with only one show, his weekly syndicated effort The New Treasure Hunt. But the success of The Gong Show in 1976 encouraged him to revive the Dating and Newlywed games, as well as adding the $1.98 Beauty Show to his syndication empire. He also hosted a short lived primetime variety hour for NBC from February to April 1978, called The Chuck Barris Rah-Rah Show, essentially a noncompetitive knock-off of Gong.
In Barris's biography, he claims to have worked for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) as an assassin in the 1960s and the 1970s. A 2002 feature film version, directed by George Clooney and starring Sam Rockwell, depicts Barris as killing 33 people. Barris wrote a sequel, Bad Grass Never Dies, in 2004.
Barris published Della: A Memoir of My Daughter in 2010 about the death of his only child, who died in 1998 after a long struggle with drug addiction.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
July 16, 2007
Perhaps the skull printed on the front cover of the book should have warned me that the book's contents were rancid. The premise of the book did sort of smell bad: a once-famous creator of game shows (a bum named Chuck Barris, wink wink) has an idea for a game show where contestants either win a huge sum of cash or, if they lose, they're executed live on tv. Sounds dreadful but Barris has written some interesting stuff so I figured maybe he could do something with the idea. After all, this is the guy who built an entire industry out of dumb shows like The Dating Game, The Newlywed Game, and my all-time guilty pleasure favorite The Gong Show.
Barris was obviously trying to write a zany Tom-Robbins-type novel but it just doesn't work at all. While I managed to keep reading, it was mainly out of disbelief that he could keep introducing entirely new characters almost to the end of the book... there were at least 15 or 20 to keep track of. It was exhausting trying to keep all their storylines straight, especially when they started converging near the end and it was difficult to remember (or even care) how they were all connected to each other. This is the kind of book where characters drop dead of shock as a punchline... not one character but a whole series of them... and others are disposed of in mercilessly violent ways for no good reason. The main problem is that three quarters of these characters and their bizarre stories were completely unnecessary and attempts to make their paths cross were clumsy and clunky or just really ugly and unpleasant. What humor there could have been is spoiled by a mean-spirited tone. Somehow the book manages to be both racist and moralizing at the same time. There's something in here to offend everyone. I read it out of curiosity. I wouldn't recommend anyone else do the same. Barris was just way more fun in the 70s.
Barris was obviously trying to write a zany Tom-Robbins-type novel but it just doesn't work at all. While I managed to keep reading, it was mainly out of disbelief that he could keep introducing entirely new characters almost to the end of the book... there were at least 15 or 20 to keep track of. It was exhausting trying to keep all their storylines straight, especially when they started converging near the end and it was difficult to remember (or even care) how they were all connected to each other. This is the kind of book where characters drop dead of shock as a punchline... not one character but a whole series of them... and others are disposed of in mercilessly violent ways for no good reason. The main problem is that three quarters of these characters and their bizarre stories were completely unnecessary and attempts to make their paths cross were clumsy and clunky or just really ugly and unpleasant. What humor there could have been is spoiled by a mean-spirited tone. Somehow the book manages to be both racist and moralizing at the same time. There's something in here to offend everyone. I read it out of curiosity. I wouldn't recommend anyone else do the same. Barris was just way more fun in the 70s.
October 13, 2015
This book's premise was so interesting and ripe for creating a really interesting and fascinating story, and written by someone who has spent his life creating game shows! But it was extremely lackluster. The characters were completely unbelievable. Some were introduced and then discarded for absolutely no reason. The entire book seemed to start so many mini-stories that went nowhere. The point was to draw out the characters for us, but some characters stories were dropped, and some character's motivations were very unclear.
The actual show takes up a tiny bit of the book and goes absolutely nowhere.
This could have been an awesome book if researched a little bit more, fleshed out a little bit more, brought to a satisfactory conclusion. Something.
The actual show takes up a tiny bit of the book and goes absolutely nowhere.
This could have been an awesome book if researched a little bit more, fleshed out a little bit more, brought to a satisfactory conclusion. Something.
January 21, 2008
This book was terrible--do not waste your time. I almost always finish a book, even if I don't like it, and I finally gave up at page 75 (which was a stretch). It's poorly written, very redundant and never gets to the point.
August 16, 2020
Great interwoven tangle and callback.
February 28, 2012
Chuck Barris is the creator and producer of such shows as The Dating Game, The Newlywed Game, and The Gong Show, so it's safe to say he knows a little something about television contests. However, if there's one thing that "The Big Question" proves, he certainly doesn't know much about writing.
"The Big Question" is the name of a theoretical television show, one in which the final contestant in the final round has the chance to win one hundred million dollars by correctly answering one big question. The downside? If they answer wrong, they are executed on live television.
It's not a particularly unique idea for a television show. In fact, its roots (and the themes that Barris only barely explores in this novel) are grounded in the same explotative prurience that made Barris' other shows (and modern day staples such as "Survivor" and "Big Brother") such big hits. It's not just about watching people succeed. In fact, it's hardly about that. It's also about watching them fail, and miserably. There's not a much more miserable failure than being forced to swallow lethal poison in front of a dozen cameras and a studio audience.
In spite of its pretty standard concept, I think the book still could've been interesting and engaging (that's why I bought it in the first place), but of this book's 277 pages, the disturbing game show makes up, oh, about twenty pages total. What is the rest of the story about? The characters.
The novel is populated with a whole cadre of lame duck personalities, and they are talked about at length, and in mind-numbing, excruciatingly poorly-written detail. The lonely widower, Vera, with a penchant for National Geographic magazines and mild alcoholism. The ex-con, gang-banger turned wealthy Muslim drug dealer. The gorgeous hooker with a heart of gold and an astronomical I.Q. Their backgrounds and attitudes and hopes and dreams are diligently explained, ad nauseum.
Of course, these characters' lives are on the line in this game show, and so a treatment of those same lives isn't unheard of. Again, it might even have had the possibility of being, if not entertaining, at least mildly diverting. The problem, however, is one of repetition, redundancy, cliche, and just, plain, pedestrian prose. Although, come to think of it, "pedestrian" isn't even the right word. Try "awful." Or "ridiculous." Or "preschool." It's really just very, very bad.
You may not believe this, but I hate (and hesitate) to be so harsh. But I also don't want to be anything other than honest. Although I laud Barris for giving his characters such, uh, rich histories (no one can say these people have no back-stories), he also gave them inauthentic, over-drawn dialogue. Most of the people in this story speak with the same studied nonchalance as an infomercial host/ess, their lines ringing about as true-to-life as your average episode of "General Hospital." Even beyond that, there are SO many people, the details of their life stories are glossed over and sped through, making it pretty much impossible to care about or even totally get any of them.
One of the characters, a crippled bum, is the mastermind behind the mortal television show. The cripple spends much of the book coughing and hacking (I think the phrase, "The cripple coughed and coughed," appears at least 100 times), but he also takes moments to contemplate how horrible it is to get old and die. At one point he laments the fact that a movie he'd made -- Confessions of a Dangerous Mind -- had tanked horribly. And, just to drive the point home, when the bum meets a famous producer on the street, he entices the wealthy man with promises of "the greatest game show ever," and then slips his name and number into the producer's pocket. The name? Chuck Barris.
Writers, generally speaking, write for themselves, but never before has it been so vacuously transparent. A novel that's about lives reconsidered and death faced head-on, "The Big Question" is basically one man's struggle to come to terms with his own mortality, an attempt to novelize someone's personal ruminations and insecurities as they accept the inexorable force of old age and decay. All people must fight the fear of life's fatal finish, we all grapple with the ultimate finale that faces us, so what's written here is, again, not so unconventional or unique, but it's also not unheard of. (Didn't someone once say that all art and entertainment is about either sex, love, death or money?) Perhaps Barris thought it would be funny, or thought-provoking, or philosophical, or even just entertaining.
All it really is, though, is bad.
"The Big Question" is the name of a theoretical television show, one in which the final contestant in the final round has the chance to win one hundred million dollars by correctly answering one big question. The downside? If they answer wrong, they are executed on live television.
It's not a particularly unique idea for a television show. In fact, its roots (and the themes that Barris only barely explores in this novel) are grounded in the same explotative prurience that made Barris' other shows (and modern day staples such as "Survivor" and "Big Brother") such big hits. It's not just about watching people succeed. In fact, it's hardly about that. It's also about watching them fail, and miserably. There's not a much more miserable failure than being forced to swallow lethal poison in front of a dozen cameras and a studio audience.
In spite of its pretty standard concept, I think the book still could've been interesting and engaging (that's why I bought it in the first place), but of this book's 277 pages, the disturbing game show makes up, oh, about twenty pages total. What is the rest of the story about? The characters.
The novel is populated with a whole cadre of lame duck personalities, and they are talked about at length, and in mind-numbing, excruciatingly poorly-written detail. The lonely widower, Vera, with a penchant for National Geographic magazines and mild alcoholism. The ex-con, gang-banger turned wealthy Muslim drug dealer. The gorgeous hooker with a heart of gold and an astronomical I.Q. Their backgrounds and attitudes and hopes and dreams are diligently explained, ad nauseum.
Of course, these characters' lives are on the line in this game show, and so a treatment of those same lives isn't unheard of. Again, it might even have had the possibility of being, if not entertaining, at least mildly diverting. The problem, however, is one of repetition, redundancy, cliche, and just, plain, pedestrian prose. Although, come to think of it, "pedestrian" isn't even the right word. Try "awful." Or "ridiculous." Or "preschool." It's really just very, very bad.
You may not believe this, but I hate (and hesitate) to be so harsh. But I also don't want to be anything other than honest. Although I laud Barris for giving his characters such, uh, rich histories (no one can say these people have no back-stories), he also gave them inauthentic, over-drawn dialogue. Most of the people in this story speak with the same studied nonchalance as an infomercial host/ess, their lines ringing about as true-to-life as your average episode of "General Hospital." Even beyond that, there are SO many people, the details of their life stories are glossed over and sped through, making it pretty much impossible to care about or even totally get any of them.
One of the characters, a crippled bum, is the mastermind behind the mortal television show. The cripple spends much of the book coughing and hacking (I think the phrase, "The cripple coughed and coughed," appears at least 100 times), but he also takes moments to contemplate how horrible it is to get old and die. At one point he laments the fact that a movie he'd made -- Confessions of a Dangerous Mind -- had tanked horribly. And, just to drive the point home, when the bum meets a famous producer on the street, he entices the wealthy man with promises of "the greatest game show ever," and then slips his name and number into the producer's pocket. The name? Chuck Barris.
Writers, generally speaking, write for themselves, but never before has it been so vacuously transparent. A novel that's about lives reconsidered and death faced head-on, "The Big Question" is basically one man's struggle to come to terms with his own mortality, an attempt to novelize someone's personal ruminations and insecurities as they accept the inexorable force of old age and decay. All people must fight the fear of life's fatal finish, we all grapple with the ultimate finale that faces us, so what's written here is, again, not so unconventional or unique, but it's also not unheard of. (Didn't someone once say that all art and entertainment is about either sex, love, death or money?) Perhaps Barris thought it would be funny, or thought-provoking, or philosophical, or even just entertaining.
All it really is, though, is bad.
August 10, 2016
I didn't really start to enjoy the Name of the Wind until about the 200 page mark. I didn't start enjoying Game of Thrones until about page 150. That's just the way things go sometimes. Sometimes, a book takes a while to grow on you, but if you give it time and attention, it'll grow into something beautiful. Some books are like that. They ask a lot but they give a lot in return.
The Big Question doesn't really pick up until page 225. That's a long time to let a book grow, but it's not unreasonable; it's within arm's reach of the time I gave for the Name of the Wind.
Unfortunately, the Name of the Wind and Game of Thrones are both big, massive slabs of a book, roughly 700ish pages each. Even though they take 200 pages to develop, that still leaves 500 pages of excellent content.
The Big Question is a very slim little tome that ends at the 275 page mark. That leaves fifty pages of interesting material, compared to the 200+ pages that were either middling, redundant, or dull.
The problem with the Big Question is that it would have made an excellent short story or novella. The premise is good: a game show where the loser gets executed on live television. But that's a short story premise. Short stories and novellas are great for developping those kinds of crazy "what-if" scenarios. It's hard to stretch that momentum out to the 275 page mark, which is what happens here. Even at its trim 275 pages, the Big Question feels too long.
I know why it was created this way. The author wants us to spend time with the characters, to get to know them, to care about some of them so that we're invested in their fate when showtime finally rolls in. But it doesn't work and part of the reason it doesn't work (aside from how generally weird some of the characters are) is that the premise forbids us from connecting with anyone. We already know that some of them are going to die and that knowledge staves off emotional attachment. Thus, for all their development, every character feels expendendable.
Unfortunately, I think all that material is superfluous. We knew everything we needed to know about the characters when they're introduced on the show. The rest is just padding. Speaking of padding, we knew the premise of the book when we picked it up, but the first 100 pages dance around the question of "the Death Game" like it's going to be a big surprise.
The last fifty pages are good. Really good, in fact. The finale is appropriately gutwrenching. There are a few characters with happy endings and two in particular with rending, emotional gutpunches that mark good fiction. But I can't say that I liked a book when more than two-thirds of it were a slog to read, because the fact is, I didn't enjoy the majority of the time I spent with it.
If this had been a short story or a novella, I would have polished it off in a single sitting and spent a few days thinking about the commentary and the horror of its message. But that's not what happened here. Instead, I picked at the book for nearly three months, picking it up and setting it back down. A final tip, if you do pick this book up, skip straight to page 225. If you start there, you'll actually have a really good fifty page novella to enjoy.
I just can't give the book a higher rating due to what I wish it could have been. I have to go with what it was. Thus, 1 star.
The Big Question doesn't really pick up until page 225. That's a long time to let a book grow, but it's not unreasonable; it's within arm's reach of the time I gave for the Name of the Wind.
Unfortunately, the Name of the Wind and Game of Thrones are both big, massive slabs of a book, roughly 700ish pages each. Even though they take 200 pages to develop, that still leaves 500 pages of excellent content.
The Big Question is a very slim little tome that ends at the 275 page mark. That leaves fifty pages of interesting material, compared to the 200+ pages that were either middling, redundant, or dull.
The problem with the Big Question is that it would have made an excellent short story or novella. The premise is good: a game show where the loser gets executed on live television. But that's a short story premise. Short stories and novellas are great for developping those kinds of crazy "what-if" scenarios. It's hard to stretch that momentum out to the 275 page mark, which is what happens here. Even at its trim 275 pages, the Big Question feels too long.
I know why it was created this way. The author wants us to spend time with the characters, to get to know them, to care about some of them so that we're invested in their fate when showtime finally rolls in. But it doesn't work and part of the reason it doesn't work (aside from how generally weird some of the characters are) is that the premise forbids us from connecting with anyone. We already know that some of them are going to die and that knowledge staves off emotional attachment. Thus, for all their development, every character feels expendendable.
Unfortunately, I think all that material is superfluous. We knew everything we needed to know about the characters when they're introduced on the show. The rest is just padding. Speaking of padding, we knew the premise of the book when we picked it up, but the first 100 pages dance around the question of "the Death Game" like it's going to be a big surprise.
The last fifty pages are good. Really good, in fact. The finale is appropriately gutwrenching. There are a few characters with happy endings and two in particular with rending, emotional gutpunches that mark good fiction. But I can't say that I liked a book when more than two-thirds of it were a slog to read, because the fact is, I didn't enjoy the majority of the time I spent with it.
If this had been a short story or a novella, I would have polished it off in a single sitting and spent a few days thinking about the commentary and the horror of its message. But that's not what happened here. Instead, I picked at the book for nearly three months, picking it up and setting it back down. A final tip, if you do pick this book up, skip straight to page 225. If you start there, you'll actually have a really good fifty page novella to enjoy.
I just can't give the book a higher rating due to what I wish it could have been. I have to go with what it was. Thus, 1 star.
January 14, 2008
Barris, the producer of 70s and 80s game shows (and self reported CIA agent?), self references several times in The Big Question. The obvious references (the cripple's name is Chuck Barris; mention of "that jerk on the Newlywed Game") make the reader wonder what other secret in-jokes may populate the novel.
The story is raw with many references to the darker side of life - racism, sexism, criminality. Many characters, while interesting and colorful, are detestable or pathetic. Almost all the main characters die in horrific ways - by mobsters, walking in front of a bus, public execution for entertainment. It begs the question: anyone who wants to read a novel about a game show where the losing contestant is killed may just be attracted to low lifes and be an exhibitionist themselves. This book also contains a fair amount of greed, egotism, and cruelty. Surprisingly it ends on an optimistic note with an afterword about the publics disapproval and eventual actions to shut the show down.
A quick, well written read, showcasing the worst of people written in a witty manner. I enjoyed it by may not reccomend it to people.
The story is raw with many references to the darker side of life - racism, sexism, criminality. Many characters, while interesting and colorful, are detestable or pathetic. Almost all the main characters die in horrific ways - by mobsters, walking in front of a bus, public execution for entertainment. It begs the question: anyone who wants to read a novel about a game show where the losing contestant is killed may just be attracted to low lifes and be an exhibitionist themselves. This book also contains a fair amount of greed, egotism, and cruelty. Surprisingly it ends on an optimistic note with an afterword about the publics disapproval and eventual actions to shut the show down.
A quick, well written read, showcasing the worst of people written in a witty manner. I enjoyed it by may not reccomend it to people.
February 22, 2008
I saw Chuck Barris on a CNN show or something along those lines promoting this book and knew I had to read it. It is satirical, but when you think about the idea of a reality show called The Death Game, it really isn't that far fetched in the world we live in. I doubt we'll ever see anything so morbid, but who knows, I could very well be eating my words in the year 2040. The book is comical and insightful. It is makes you think what direction we are heading in as far as entertainment and poses the questions of how far will people go to entertain us? How far will we let it go and how much will we let medisa desensitize us? Where is the line between reality and entertainment? Is there one? Chuck Barris did a great job with this book especially by including himself as a character and actual facts that did occur, in the book. It enhanced the idea that we have blurred the line between reality and fiction and how perceive either as entertainment.
June 18, 2007
Bleh.
As Adam quickly pointed out, Steven King has already done this idea (game show in which you either win or die). Unfortunately, that version was much, much better. The main reason? It actually deals with the alleged plot.
Most of Barris' 288 pages is about the characters who will -- or will not -- appear on the show. Their back stories are vaguely interesting, but only because you expect them to all come together in a dynamic way. They don't. In fact, some of the folks never even make it on the show. So why did I read so much mediocre prose about them?
There are hints of a better book buried within this one. Maybe I'll break out the Bachman and revisit it.
As Adam quickly pointed out, Steven King has already done this idea (game show in which you either win or die). Unfortunately, that version was much, much better. The main reason? It actually deals with the alleged plot.
Most of Barris' 288 pages is about the characters who will -- or will not -- appear on the show. Their back stories are vaguely interesting, but only because you expect them to all come together in a dynamic way. They don't. In fact, some of the folks never even make it on the show. So why did I read so much mediocre prose about them?
There are hints of a better book buried within this one. Maybe I'll break out the Bachman and revisit it.
November 5, 2007
I enjoyed this book, though the beginning was frustrating to get through. He introduced so many characters, and spend only a page or two on them at a time. It did finally come all together in the end, as I knew it eventually would. There were a few good laughs, and it was definitely an interesting concept.
June 13, 2008
Not bad. It's from Chuck Berris (gong show host/crazy guy) and it's about this gameshow in 2012 that either you win 100 millon $'s, or you get executed on TV. According to him the right to do the show started when the "assisted suicide" law was overturned and you could do what you wanted with your body. Interesting...
January 5, 2008
he created the gong show!!! why not give his literature a shot??
March 8, 2008
Not big on suspense. Not what I'd call a real "page-turner" but I did enjoy this story. I really enjoyed the characters and the way the author described them.
March 10, 2012
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah!
August 19, 2012
Clever book about reality TV. A game show where if you miss the final question you are executed on live tv. Great characters and a real shocking ending. Recommended by Angela Laws. Thanks Angela.
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November 2, 2013"Goodreads wants us - the passionate users, the activists - gone. We are a fly in the ointment, a gnat in the white wine of marketing feeds. They can't use our reviews on amazon.com. They contain .gifs, and profanity, and they are full of social stuff. We are talking to each other and not to the anonymous amazon customer who might want to buy the book in question."
This is the question posed by Moonlight reader. It is scary. I know this hullabaloo about reviews being deleted may seem, to some, like a silly issue to be up in arms about. But this is a social media site. It is about more than reviews, it is a community, inspiring reviews that make me laugh, comment streams in which I can vehemently agree or disagree with the reviewer, book clubs, status updates.
Goodreads is not just about book reviews, and we the members have full ownership of the database. We created the content, we decide on the tone of the website.
It scares me to think that Amazon is wanting something whitewashed, like we are expected to be in formal attire all the time.
I haven't written regular reviews that would get me deleted, I don't engage in trolling or negative behaviour which I realise does happen. However I still believe this push for censorship is wrong.
This is my second subversive review... My first was deleted and I suspect this one will be also... The Big Question is how long will it take for a new 'goodreads' site to get its user interface up to scratch so goodreads can be replaced... I wait with interest.
This is the question posed by Moonlight reader. It is scary. I know this hullabaloo about reviews being deleted may seem, to some, like a silly issue to be up in arms about. But this is a social media site. It is about more than reviews, it is a community, inspiring reviews that make me laugh, comment streams in which I can vehemently agree or disagree with the reviewer, book clubs, status updates.
Goodreads is not just about book reviews, and we the members have full ownership of the database. We created the content, we decide on the tone of the website.
It scares me to think that Amazon is wanting something whitewashed, like we are expected to be in formal attire all the time.
I haven't written regular reviews that would get me deleted, I don't engage in trolling or negative behaviour which I realise does happen. However I still believe this push for censorship is wrong.
This is my second subversive review... My first was deleted and I suspect this one will be also... The Big Question is how long will it take for a new 'goodreads' site to get its user interface up to scratch so goodreads can be replaced... I wait with interest.
November 9, 2015
Not one of my favorites. . .
September 9, 2007
This is a weird one but pretty entertaining.
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