As a hibernating vine reviewer, I guess I also disagree. I was offered mostly books to review. You sometimes get an early print full of spelling errors, which

As a hibernating vine reviewer, I guess I also disagree. I was offered mostly books to review. You sometimes get an early print full of spelling errors, which was quite a pain to read, especially if the book was not to your liking (most weren't to my liking). So, although I didn't pay for the book, I have spent a few hours fighting the urge to use it as compost. No way I will think more favourably about the book. However, I did spend some time thinking about the books I read and did try to write useful and balanced reviews because I felt as if I was paid to do so, and that it wouldn't be fair not to. This is despite not having to review every item you receive. Only once I managed to get some earphones for reviewing . they were terrible compared to what I would normally buy, and so would have never bought them otherwise. And that was that I wrote in my review. Would I be more negative if I had to buy the earphones? I don't think so. I'd return them to Amazon and probably not write a review at all. I stopped reviewing for Vine after a short while. Since I couldn't give or throw the stuff they sent me, I imagined me drowning in a pile of terrible, misspelt books after going deaf by rubbish earphones. I actually don't know how I got to be a Vine reviewer in the first place. I didn't have that many reviews (less than 10 when I started, if I remember correctly). Anyway, to begin with it felt like a honour (and a chance to bag free goodies) and at the end it was a chore (and discussions with myself whether it's moral to throw the stuff away) and I stopped.