Monday, February 16, 2009

Musing Mondays: Non-Blog Book Reviews

This week's Musing Mondays topic is about book reviews:

Do you read any non-blogging book reviews? If so, where (newspaper, library etc)? Do you have any favourites sources you’d like to share?


There are several non-blog book reviews that I go to for recommendations and other bookish information. I guess the New York Times Sunday Book Review is the one I'm most faithful to, and also (until this week) the Washington Post's Book World. Of course, Book World has closed up shop as a separate print entity – from now on, the reviews will be scattered throughout the daily editions of the paper; somehow, that's just not the same.

I try to keep up with the reviews in the New Yorker, but I'm usually at least a month or two behind in my magazine reading. I also occasionally look at the reviews at LibraryThing and Good Reads, and commercial sites like Amazon and Barnes & Noble. And my husband subscribes to the Times Literary Supplement, so I read that now and then, too – it's great for finding out about British titles, but frustrating in that so many of them aren't always available in the U.S.

I'll read book reviews just about anywhere, in magazines or newspapers, or on publishers' websites. But more and more, I find I'm turning to a few trusted bloggers for recommendations and reviews. I don't exactly know how it's happened, but if they say a book is worth reading, it somehow carries more weight with me than the same information from one of the "professional" sources. Is that weird or just the way of the future?

Musing Mondays is hosted by Rebecca at Just one more page.

3 comments:

  1. I don't think it's weird at all. My fellow reading bloggers words carry more weight for me than a magazine reviewer...feels more personal!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Funny, but I seldom read book reviews. I read so many blogs, magazines, and books--enough, already. I'd rather read a book than read a review, and I write reviews!

    ReplyDelete

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