"A widespread cultural and political illiteracy is abetted by newspapers that no longer review books..."
~"Goodbye to All That" by Steve Wasserman
I can somewhat understand where the concern would come in, but I think it may be taken too far in this article. Just because books are not being reviewed as frequently doesn't mean people aren't reading books. Yes, there may be merit in book reviews, but everyone has a different taste in books. Just because one critic thinks a book is not a worthwhile read doesn't mean that everyone will agree. There will be some people that purposely avoid reading that book simply because of the fact that it received a bad review. They could potentially be missiog out on an excellent read--for them, at least--as a result. Also, not everyone who reads books pays attention to book reviews. I can see where book reviews could be good, but I don't think it's as crucial as this author suggests.
Comments (2)
No one is interested in reading reviews because no one is reading books. I think the reason why Wasserman is so upset is because he know that it is a domino effect. First the book reviews and then the books all going to the abyss being destroyed by new multimedia.
Posted by Kevin "Kelo The Great" Hinton | November 13, 2007 12:09 PM
Posted on November 13, 2007 12:09
That may be true, but we english makors often go looking for good books to read, while for other people with different interests, a book review may be the only thing that might catch their interest.
As for the use of book reveiws in general, if one says that the novel is really bad, I for one would read it just to see how bad it was, if that.
Posted by Daniella Choynowski | November 13, 2007 12:36 PM
Posted on November 13, 2007 12:36