Themis-Athena's Garden of Books

The Hydra, as everyone knows who is either familiar with Greek mythology or with the reviews that have lately been posted on Goodreads for this particular book, is a monster that is virtually impossible to defeat, because for every one of its multiple heads that is being chopped off, it grows two others.

Until September 20, 2013, the only Hydra-esque phenomenon that the Goodreads community had to worry about on that website was the Sock Puppet Hydra.

(Image by Glendon Mellow a/k/a The Flying Trilobite, Creative Commons licensed CC BY 3.0)

Then, in the wake of the new reviewing policy as announced on Friday, September 20, 2013, the Hydra took to reviews.

After Goodreads had started deleting reviews (including many of those posted for this particular book) on the grounds that they were "off topic," also on a Friday afternoon (U.S. time) – which lately seems to be the moment to watch out for important new developments on that site – a mysterious new author named G.R. MacGoodreader created a book page on Goodreads for a book entitled "The Great Goodreads Censorship Debacle." By the next Monday, McGoodreader and his book were gone, or so it seemed. Head chopped off.

Well, as it turns out, Mr. McGoodreader is actually called G.R. Reader, and he, too, was merely a Hydra in disguise – a multi-headed creature just like the one from Greek mythology. He – or they – are back. And with a real book, too.

I'm told it makes for an interesting read.