The Opinionated Audience

There is something to be said for a second opinion.  As I was reading Joseph Conrad's novel, Heart of Darkness, I found my mind wandering a bit.  To be honest, this is not the kind of book I'd usually choose, so even before I finished the book, I tried to learn a little bit more about it to get more of a feel for the story.  I went to popular websites like Amazon.com and Goodreads.com to see what readers there had to say about this classic.  There were, as I suspected, some pretty mixed reviews.  

Some people loved it, and I found that they were more on Goodreads  than Amazon.  For the most part, Goodreads seems to have an audience of devout readers, while Amazon appeals more to the general population.  Another factor in this could be that Amazon asks its  users to create a review after purchasing a book/product, while Goodreads reviews are done by unprompted users.  This led me to conclude that a lot of the people on Goodreads were avid readers who were more apt to view the novel in a positive manner and contribute their opinion than were those on Amazon.  Honestly, Amazon is a go-to for literature assignments and high schoolers tend to not enjoy classic literature as much, which may account for the more negative reviews on the site.

The Listopia feature of Goodreads was pretty entertaining when I searched Heart of Darkness.  It came up on lists such as "Favorite Gay Thrillers" and "Dark, Gritty, and SO Worth It." I don't really know how it applies to those lists, but maybe because of the dark nature of the book, or all of the metaphors.  The other books on the the lists were definitely an entertaining selection though.  Not one I would necessarily read, but interesting to be aware of!

So, what can we really learn from these experiences?  I think that this really has to do with how readers connect with a book, and the type of audience each work draws.  Writing in the digital age gives authors an advantage, because people's opinions are out there and being heard, which makes it much easier to know what to write for a specific crowd.  People let us know what they think of things, what they'd like through mediums such as fan fiction, and can be the world's best, albeit harshest, editors.  All of these are extremely valuable for anyone wishing to be successful in the modern era of literature.