Chekhov's Mistress

Another Critic Misses the Point

by Bud Parr

How many times have I heard this:


“I devoted an entire day to book blogs, trying to give them a fair chance.”



Writing in the Guardian, Rachel Cooke doesn’t find too much enlightening or interesting in book blogs. Read good responses at the Literary Saloon and (the recently and unfortunately beleaguered) Kimbofo, Ready Steady Book, Ed Rants, Petrona, Of Books and Bikes, Mental Multivitamin, dovegreyreader scribbles (Frank Wilson at the Philly Inquirer, and the Kenyon Review.



I’ll only add what is more of a summing up than anything: Book blogs are part of a conversation about books. If you walked into a conversation mid-way, you might very well find it uninteresting, particularly if it is not necessarily a heated of-the-moment conversation, but an ongoing day-to-day dialogue. If you follow along for more than a few hours or more importantly join the conversation you will find book reviews, thoughts on books, rants, personal slants and everything in between. Not all of it is great, but readership and credibility exist on a one-on-one basis.



To compare blogs to professional criticism, as Cooke does, is not very smart. It is criticism of a sort and professional criticism is not always very professional anyway (just ask for examples!), but blogs stand handsomely beside dead-tree media because dead-tree media has its limits in coverage and style. Those limits are thankfully turned on their head by the internet’s ability to connect thousands of people who are avid enough about books to spend their time writing about them.

posted November 27, 2006

comments

Print reviewers do miss the point when they think blogs are supposed to be like their stand-alone print review counterparts. You’re right that blogs represent a conversation about books, and it’s a poor reflection on reviewers in general that a writer would “spend a day” looking at blogs and think that’s enough to have an opinion. That’s like saying, “I spent a day at Borders and really don’t see what these so-called ‘authors’ have to offer that we don’t already have in the theatre.”

But that isn’t to say many blogs don’t immediately grip the casual reader. Blogs like Dooce and the Gawker sites can get someone hooked with a single IM’d link. However, I can’t find a book blog that does so. Book blogs demand a large investment and a lot of patience from their readership because they’re about something external (books) that not every reader has had a chance to form an opinion on, and the topics addressed are often very complex. So being a devoted book blog reader can mean being engaged by a post only once a week or so.

    – Andrew W (11/27  at  04:21 PM)


Coming from someone whose blog has been called “an acquired taste” I totally appreciate that last statement, Andrew. I think of book blogs were able to wow someone at first glance they probably wouldn’t be worth the trouble, for the very reasons you state.

    – Bud Parr (11/27  at  06:19 PM)


Bud, I enjoy the mad power blogging has given me. An entire industry trembles at my feet.

    – David Thayer (11/27  at  08:01 PM)


Very good article, I agree with your perspective, which describes my own experience very well.

And thank you for the mention, I am honoured to be among such esteemed company wink

    – Maxine (11/29  at  04:58 AM)


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