The Book Blog Era
Reader comment on: The Scorn of the Literary Blog

Submitted by R Campbell, Jun 13, 2007 07:33

Adam Kirsch mixes up two (or more) separate issues. Given that bloggers can in no way be blamed for the shrinkage of mainstream book reviews (if anything, newspaper editors are desperate to capture the comparatively young web readership), Adam Kirsch's objections are at least as off-point as any of the NBCC's concerns. Flaws and all, bloggers are pouring into a vacated space. Assertions that "resentment" motivates "disenfranchised" web .reviewers only parrot the pat old defensive dismissal of all critics as frustrated creators. Blog malice levels are matched in the letters columns of many book journals and the more gossipy sectors of culture coverage. Furthermore, true publishing vices - the lack of fact-checking, the shilling of faux memoirs as non-fiction, the shameless validation accorded pop ideologues - merit a challenging inquiry shrugged off by book critics. And even if bloggers try to tarnish legitimate books, readers already drawn to them aren't likely to be dput off by clearly subjective, off-the-cuff "crotchets." Badmouthing won't kill a good book. Blogs are far more effective at attracting reader attention to unbranded, unpublicized, perhaps specialized texts that even the plumpest book journals have never had room to cover. A self-respecting blogger can present the case for a favored book in detail, without the length limitations dictated by newsprint. Savvy bookseekers can often consult and compare various blog opinions rather than the one or two judgments most readily available. They'll decide soon enough whose taste and authority they trust.

They can also target types of books of most interest to them. Frankly, for a typical reader of reviews, much of any nobly inclusive book amounts to dead space. Since the print retreat appears irreversible, the clear recourse for serious book critics is to establish their own internet presence, via personal outlets or fullscale, ad-supported review sites setting indisputably high standards and accomodating lively, open-ended exchanges likely to promote passion about books in general. Genuine expertise will make itself known, and the "transaction between reviewer and reader" will be more face-to-face than ever.

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