I recently attended a panel discussion hosted by the NBCC entitled Book Reviews 2010: What will they look like? at BookExpo America in New York. After the event I ran into Ed Champion who lamented the lack of any love exhibited by the panelists. Love of literature. Of reading, of good writing. All the talk it seemed to him, centered on ‘bullshit dichotomies: expert versus user content; reviews versus recommendations’. Too much about the business; attracting eyeballs, connecting books with readers. Not enough about what really matters: the books themselves.
Aside from some entertaining remarks by Ben Greenman, and an exchange between panel and renegade – Goodreads founder Otis Chandler – who suggested that it is friends not critics, who most influence reading decisions, nothing much new was said. The democratizing influence of the Internet, user-content and reader reviews, financial difficulties faced by traditional gate keepers, the information glut, the question of authority, and the crying need now more than ever for ‘authoritative’ arbiters of taste… nothing here however that warranted a post.
Apropos of Ed, here though is something that does warrant attention. Another quote from Helen Gardner’s excellent (and highly recommended) The Business of Criticism:
“But beyond the pleasure that there is in all intellectual activity, the delight in the satisfaction of curiosity, in the serious inquisition of truth, and in the ordering of our experience into rationally intelligible statements, the critic of literature, like all students of the fine arts, has a special kind of pleasure in his work. He is continually in the company of his intellectual and spiritual betters. He is concerned with things which are precious to his readers as well as himself. His task is ‘to add sunshine to daylight, by making the happy happier’: to help himself and his readers to understand more deeply and to enjoy more fully what he and they already understand and enjoy. I feel little confidence in the judgements of any critic who does not make me feel, however minute his analysis, and however laborious his researches may have been, that his motive force has been enjoyment. We do not need to disguise our good fortune, as if to allow the world to see that the study of literature is enjoyable might diminish its intellectual respectability.”
So, what will book reviews look like? Traditional book review sources have during the past five years been treated to a faceful of competition the likes of which they’ve never tasted before. As time goes by advertising dollars will migrate to those sites that: a) add the most sunshine to daylight, and make the happy happiest b) contain the best writing c) are motivated by and exude enjoyment d) attract and retain a readership of loyal like-minded book lovers.
More sites will do what Bookninja and Bookslut currently do best: provide timely, quality round-up posts in combination with more considered regular in-depth reviews and interviews – written, oral and visual. The result? Increases in: 1) the sheer quantity of writing about literature including more good quality sources of stringent criticism, 2) the amount of scrutiny new work receives, and 3) exchanges between readers and authors; all of which I think bodes well for the creation of better literary fiction in the coming years.
to 103rd Street or take the M10 bus. The play runs Thursday through Sunday, May 28 – June 21 at 7:00 pm. Lear is followed by The School for Husbands, starting in August. 
