Henry Raddick - Reviewing Genius

The net is spawning all kinds of new forms of communication, and not all of it involves blogs, blogging, blogger, or blogapallooza.

Take, for example, the art of the joke review. This is Henry Raddick's medium, and here's his work..

His reviews are hilarious. For example, here's what he said about a book called, The Maltese : Diminutive Aristocrat:

A first rate guide to this extraordinary breed. The book deals with all aspects of ownership and care with admirable thoroughness it even gives tips on how to spot when your dog is liquefying into a pool of itself.

Perfect. Smooth setup, deadpan delivery, then a hell of a zinger. Or there's this review of a book called, The Art of Flamenco:

I bought this book for my wife. Flamenco is the dust of the bull-ring, the flounce of the gypsy's skirt and the crazy clatter of castanets. Flamenco swaggers. Flamenco pleads. Flamenco is the beating heart of Andalusia. Flamenco is NOT a tanked-up Englishwoman embarrassing her husband in a hotel bar in Seville.

After a healthy sesssion of reading, laughing, and spraying beer out of my nose, I decided to try and figure out what this all meant. How would you classify Harry's work? High-tech graffitti? Is he a parasite, amusing himself at the expense of Amazon and its customers? But then I thought, "Hey, this guy draws readers to his work, which in turn advertises the book he's writing about." I'll bet the authors and Amazon don't mind that. But then there's the problem that he has to give the book a rating, which skews the ratings system.

I tried to figure out how it all balanced out, but in the end I decided to have another beer. I'll leave you with more of the wisdom of Henry, from his review of the beloved classic, God, Why Did Dad Lose His Job? :

A truly wonderful guide which has enabled me to explain my recent sacking for vandalising company property to my children in terms of a minor act of redemption. First rate.

First rate, Henry.