Another Book Review Folding
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the L.A. Times will cease to publish its book review as a separate section. That would mean that the only stand-alone newspaper book reviews remaining are the...
View ArticleHow many book reviews do we need?
Marginal Revolution has an interesting discussion of the role of newspaper book reviews. Several people say they just want “the bottom line — buy it, read it, skip it, or burn it.” Why would you want...
View ArticleBook Reviews in Blogs and Newspapers
Joe Wilkert makes some good points about book reviewing on his Publishing 2020 blog. Why do so many people like reading the reviews of books on Amazon.com? I think it’s because we all know how much...
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The most pompous translator of our time?
When I saw that the anchor text for a link on Ron Silliman’s blog was “a review of the most pompous translator of our time” I had a brief moment of concern. Then I remembered that my book on...
View ArticleShould reviewers read other reviews?
Discussion at the Reading Experience. Post from Right Reading, Tom Christensen's guide to print and electronic book publishing. Follow me on twitter.Should reviewers read other reviews?
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Faint Praise
Faint Praise: The Plight of Book Reviewing in America, by Gail Pool. Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press, 2007. 184 pages, 6 x 9 in., bibligraphy, index, $19.95 (paper). Gail Pool sent me...
View ArticlePoisoning the Well
What we get in newspaper book reviews are critics testifying to what their first encounters with a work were like, before any other people have experienced the work. There can be something awkward in...
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Weinberger on Sontag
Susan Sontag has positive associations for me for a personal and I suppose fairly trivial reason — she sent a generous letter to me when I was director of Mercury House saying she admired our...
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Thinking with Type
Continuing our week of laziness link love while I’m on the road, I Love Typography has a review of Thinking with Type by Ellen Lupton. I think you could say it’s a positive review. For example,...
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Publishing payola
Want to bribe the New York Times Book Review into reviewing your book? If so, you’ll have to come up with something better than these examples of book review swag. . Post from Right Reading, Tom...
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Why book review sections don’t work
Who would have guessed that the San Francico Chronicle‘s Sunday book review would be one of the few standalone newspaper reviews remaining? (It survives as a pull-out from the paper’s opinion...
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The Best of Contemporary Mexican Fiction
Right Reading received this e-mail from Olivia Sears, president of the Center for the Art of Translation. I hope you are all enjoying The Best of Contemporary Mexican Fiction. I wanted to send along...
View ArticleThe 2010 National Book Critics Circle Award Finalists
The NBCC has announced their 2010 award finalists. I used to be a member of this group but there are too many older books I need to read to spend all my time trying to keep current with the new ones....
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ROI review
A nice short review of River of Ink in my local paper: “River of Ink: Literature, History, Art” by Thomas Christensen (Counterpoint Press, $35, 320 pages). The title of Thomas Christensen’s...
View ArticleReviewing posts at rightreading.com
This post will be sticky in the “reviewing” category. For some personal thoughts about reviewing (similar to those that appeared in my River of Ink: Literature, History, Art) see this page. (It...
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Ten thoughts on Carl Hiaasen’s Razor Girl
I read Carl Hiassen’s Razor Girl after seeing several rave reviews, such as two in the New York Times (“irresistible” and “elegant”), one from NPR (“hilarious”), and one in Kirkus Reviews (“unbridled...
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Italo Calvino, Six Memos for the New Millennium
A friend and I were talking. One of my favorites is Italo Calvino, she said. Oh, yes!… I used to review some of his books for the San Francisco Chronicle. Which ones? My favorite was Six Memos for the...
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The Golden Ratio: The Divine Beauty of Mathematics, by Gary D. Meisner
BOOK REVIEWRace Point PublishingOct 23, 201891/4 x 113/8 in., 224 pagesISBN: 9781631064869 I have often used the golden ratio in my design work. I have to confess that this sometimes reflected a kind...
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Scientific Historica: How the World’s Great Science Books Chart the History...
Scientifica Historica front cover. BOOK REVIEW Ivy Press October 1, 2019 6 x 9 in., 272 pages, 320 illustrations ISBN: 978-1-7824-0878-9 As a one-time member of the National Book Critics Circle and...
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Bryant & May: Peculiar London
I just finished Christopher Fowler’s Peculiar London, and now I want to go back to the city for another visit. It is a, well, peculiar book (though great fun for the right reader), seemingly random...
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