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Book Review
Introduction to the Book Review Section
Victoria Bissell Brown
Book Review Editor
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Academics read book reviews the way
gardeners read seed catalogues in February, the way children peruse
toy catalogues in October. In the darkest depths of the semester,
as the lecture notes, committee minutes, blue books, and dissertation
proposals teeter in piles encircling our desks, we turn to book
reviews to guide our plans for the next reading season, the next
trip to our (local, independent) bookseller, the next late-night
binge at an on-line bookmart. I doubt I'm alone in having
remarked, ruefully, to a colleague or two, "oh, I don't read
books, I read book reviews." It's not true, of course.
We read books obsessively; it's what we do for a living. But
we rely on the book reviews in our professional journals to carry
us through the lean weeks, to inform us, even to excite us, about
significant new books in our fields of study. |
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