The Christian Science Monitor takes a close look at book blogs, “the new darlings of the publishing industry,” reassuring its readers that they “can be vibrant and sharply opinionated, full of odes to favorite authors and jibes at everything from ‘cheesy’ bestsellers to the shrinking book review sections of major newspapers.”
“Book blogs aren’t without their quirks, however. Like readers and reviewers, they can be snobbish or parochial. And they’re hardly egalitarian: Most are run by one person with dictatorial powers over what gets reviewed and by whom.”
Unlike the book review sections of major newspapers, where anybody who wants to review any book just has to raise their hand and volunteer.
But the bit that made me laugh hardest was the observation that litbloggers are “trying to boost obscure writers–especially writers in the literary fiction world where John Irving is a bigger name than John Grisham.” Yep, obscure writers like John Irving, that’s why I got into this racket.