On pelting rams

Posted on June 19th, 2007 by Carlos

I read an editorial not too long ago that said that the profession of the book reviewer — that is, people who actually get paid to read and review books for newspapers and magazines — is dying out. Books just aren’t as relevant to the culture as T.V. and movies and video games and Web 2.0; the demand for those kinds of reviews is fading.

Now, don’t get me wrong: I like T.V. and movies, and I love video games and Web 2.0 stuff, and I think they should be reviewed professionally (this isn’t a Luddite’s rant against the changing times). But the other thing the editorial said was that book reviews were more and more going to become the purview of non-professionals. To my mind, that’s not exactly a bad thing. Books aren’t going to die out, but they are going to appeal to a smaller audience, much in the way books used to appeal to a much smaller audience (i.e. the few people prior to the printing press who could afford them). Occasionally a book may break out, but more and more I suspect that books will be read and discussed more by the small group of people who remain interested in the uniquely thorough way a book can deliver information or inspire one’s imagination to create an aesthetic experience. So maybe magazines and newspapers–or whatever new forms those media take–won’t reserve space for book reviews.

That means it’s more important than ever for non-professionals to take up the torch and keep the discussion alive. There may be less people reading now, but the readers that remain will be, by definition, more engaged with and passionate about their reading. Like I said, that might not be the worst thing in the world. I teach English, and every semester I run into students who are reading their very first novel in my class. I’m not naive; for many of them, it will also be their last. So be it; they prefer other forms of media. But I am hopeful that the commercialization that has so greatly influenced the publishing industry might wane as books become increasingly less commercial. Corporations are already choosing to focus less money and time on printed media. But if a group of devoted readers remains, that means that smaller independent presses will cater to them in a way that corporations can’t be bothered too, which will lead to more challenging, adventurous, and sophisticated books.

In the not-too-distant future, I think we will live in a world with very few millionaire writers. But I think, while sad in some respects, that that’s okay. Most of us who write write for loftier reasons than a paycheck, and many of us already make a living aside from what we publish. Most of us write for the same reason we read: to be enlightened. So this blog, among the other fun stuff it will cover, will help to keep the discussion of good books alive. Books might not be the #1 fashion anymore, but they still matter, and will continue to, as long as people keep turning to them for their one-of-a-kind way of inducing insight.