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Welcome
I started this web site to introduce my new book: Faint Praise: The Plight of Book Reviewing in America, and if you click on the book’s title (here or on my home page), you’ll find a description of the book, a table of contents, and links to many of the reviews the book has received. But I’ve since expanded the site to include a Bibliography of Book Reviewing, which I thought readers might find useful, and a page of Quotations About Book Reviewing, which I thought readers might find entertaining. I’ve also added a brief biographical note: If you click on my name on my home page, you can find out a bit about me and read some of my earlier essays on reviewing.
Book reviewing has been a lively topic this past year, the subject of many articles, panel discussions, and arguments, as newspapers have cut their book pages and bloggers have flourished. My own focus is not on the loss of space for reviews but on their lack of quality. Book reviewing in newspapers and magazines has faced pressures that have often undermined good criticism: these pressures include an overwhelming number of books, a need for funding, complex relationships with publishers, and the inherent difficulty of being accurate and fair. As the field moves online, it might seem that we are entering a whole new world—but in fact, reviewers will face many of the same pressures. Can we create better traditions—or will the new media repeat the failings of the past?
I welcome your thoughts and queries about book reviewing—please send them along: Gail Pool.