Faint Praise: The Plight of Book Reviewing in America

Title Page, Copyright

Faint Praise \ Faint Praise \ The Plight of Book Reviewing in America Gail Pool University of Missouri Press Columbia and London Copyright © 2007 by The Curators of the University of Missouri University of Missouri Press, Columbia, Missouri 65201 Printed and bound in the United States of America All rights reserved 5 4 3 2 1 11 10 09 08 07 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Pool, Gail, 1946– Faint praise : the plight of book reviewing in America / Gail Pool. p. cm. Summary: “Pool’s behind-the-scenes look at the institution of book reviewing analyzes how it works and why it often fails, describes how editors choose books for review and assign them to reviewers, examines the additional roles played by publishers, authors, and readers and contrasts traditional reviewing with newer, alternative book coverage”—Provided by publisher. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8262-1727-1 (hard cover : alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-8262-1728-8 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Book reviewing—United States. I. Title. PN98.B7P66 2007 808.066—dc22 2007014101 ø™ This paper meets the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, Z39.48, 1984. Designer: FoleyDesign Typesetter: The Composing Room of Michigan, Inc. Printer and binder: The Maple-Vail Book Manufacturing Group Typefaces: Barbedor and ITC Minion For Jeremy ...