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POPSChicago Sun: New focus on women authors Other major changes under Ms. Reed: "I do more graphic novel, food, and music books because I realize these appeal to different audiences. I also added poetry and politics to the types of books we review. I experimented with themed sections. My main thrust has been in highlighting local authors and mainstream authors who come to town. We do a lot more interviews with authors now and I encourage our reviewers to take an attitude. I want our section to be entertaining and engaging even if readers don't go out and buy all the books we review.... I encourage our reviewers to take strong points of views. We are a tabloid so we feel we're entitled to have some fun. I've insisted that reviewers' taglines be somewhat clever and funny. I've found that full-time freelancers often can't break out of the mold and the volleying of plot developments. I want my reviewers to write essays about books, not plot points."
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POPSThe Ethics of Book Reviews, NY Sun, June 2007 Another quote I feel really demonstrates the issue: "Some of the most influential editors and writers in the country — including Sam Tanenhaus, the editor of the New York Times Book Review, and Francine Prose, a frequent reviewer for Harper's and other publications — pretty much shrugged off all of the ethical concerns that the NBCC survey raised. As Ms. Prose said, such questions stem from "a bogus idea about book reviewing" — the idea that a book review is like "a peer review panel of the FDA."" Unfortunately, in the last few paragraphs of the article, Mr Kirsch goes off on an ill-informed rant against blogging. It's really unfortunate that the "establishment" reviewers haven't, apparently, discovered the fascinating world of the quality litblog.
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POPSWhen is a Review Not a Review? NY Observer 6/2007 Two interesting points here, on the purpose of reviews: 1. The National Book Critics Circle appears to think book reviews are a quid pro quo transaction between author and reviewer. This idea is nicely debunked by Adam Kirsch in the NY Sun (12 June 2007; see my clipmark). 2. Apparently reviews aren't intended to "review"; they're essays on the book, rather than thumbs up/down. I'll have to think about that; it's a broad statement, perhaps broader than originally intended?
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POPSJoyce Carol Oates: Reviews miss the writer A nice, pithy commentary that's very relevant to book blogging. For a number of reasons (amateur reviewers, broad access, etc), internet reviewing seems to intensify all the anxiety of hurting authors' feelings, as well as the visibility of the hurt feelings themselves.
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