NYT article on the state of book review sheets

[novella]

This article from yesterday's NY Times is about the growing trend in newspaper publishing to shrink and consolidate book reviews. Can't say it's a bad thing, as everyone knows that the big reviews are all about the reviewers, not the books. Plus, they have long been so corrupted by the favors everyone owes everyone else, that they are virtually useless for anyone who just wants to find out about new books. They have been very useful for major promotions by the big publishers, though, so there is a big fuss.

A few of the book blogs mentioned are good. I like Bookslut because it is definitely written by people who read deeply and not just by industry hacks promoting stuff or casual readers without any breadth.


http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/02/books/02revi.html?em&ex=1178337600&en=092b8e4b987b7362&ei=5087%0A

 

[SFG75]

The trend is a worrisome one to me. By cutting back on reviews, a lot of potentially good books will be lost to readers who won't know about them. While most folks on this board know of good literary journals or other sources, the vast majority of people aren't in tune with such "fine" sources for books. A lot of news coverage is celebrity fluff, it would be nice to see book reviews and other quality material still be nominally represented. Personally, I prefer more than one source of criticism and a great link for that is Metacritic. If a majority of critics like a given book, I can count on finding at least a couple(especially the Times) to disagree.

 

[Heteronym]

This article from yesterday's NY Times is about the growing trend in newspaper publishing to shrink and consolidate book reviews. Can't say it's a bad thing, as everyone knows that the big reviews are all about the reviewers, not the books.

Gore Vidal puts a lot of himself in his book articles, but I don't think I've ever read better reviews than his. He really knows how to dismantle a book and explain why it's good and why it's rubbish. And his sense of humor is second only to Bertrand Russell's.

 

[Fantasy Moon]

I don't even read reviews in newspapers. Personally the cut back won't affect me since I just browse the Internet for the general rating and sypnosis of a book that would interest me.

I've started finding new books to read in the newsletter of recently released books that I discovered in the library. It doesn't really consist of reviews, but generally just a short summary which is usually enough to entice me to want to read it.