The Los Angeles Times has eliminated several of their freelance book columnists while simultaneously promising, “We have not changed our commitment to writing about books.”
Book reviewers, among other book-related personnel (ahem, Borders Books employees), are a dying breed due to new and advanced technology that are revolutionizing the book business. The ready availability of customer reviews, which are written for free and posted on sites such as Amazon and Goodreads, are pushing professional reviewers out of business.
According to the Book Beast, Morris Dickstein – author and professor of English and theater at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, notes that, “The professional reviewer, who has a literary identity, who had to meet some editor's exacting standard, has effectively been replaced by the Amazon reviewer.”
Dickstein says the thumbs up, thumbs down (opinionated) type of reviewing “most assuredly does not work for literary reviewing, which demands taste, training, sensibility, some knowledge of the past, and a rare feeling for both language and argument. Raw opinion, no matter how deeply felt, is no substitute for argument and evidence.”
Other writers and literature professionals made enlightening points about the future of book reviewers versus Amazon reviewers at PEN World Voices Festival.
Some people prefer to receive professional literary opinions when choose which books to buy, others rely on their friends and family for recommendations, and others enjoy the opinions of Amazon reviewers who may (or may not) have similar tastes in books.
Where do you go for book recommendations? Have you ever written a book review on Amazon?
Don’t miss updates on bookstores, local authors, and all other literary happenings in the greater Harrisburg, PA area and beyond! Subscribe to these articles here. You can also follow Anne on her Web site, Twitter, Goodreads, or Tumblr for more information on reading and writing of great literature.
Comments