Book Reviewing: A Critical Look

1. Book Reviewing:A Critical Look Dr. John V. Richardson Jr., Professor UCLA Department of Information Studies ALE, 28 April 2004

2. Presentation Outline • Introduction, Definitions and Functions • Publishing - Reviewing Process • Publisher; Journal Book Review Editor; “Book” Reviewer • Elements and Types of Reviews • Schools of Criticism

3. Definitions • “A quite exceptionally thankless, irritating and exhausting job.” -- George Orwell • REVIEW, • from the Latin (“to see again…”) • CRITICISM, • art of judging; molding taste • connotes need to evaluate or assess...

4. Are There Reviewing Criteria? • What makes a good book? What is bad? What is the value of this work? • Implies the existence of laws, standards, criteria, or principles

5. Review Functions (Chen & Galvin) • Three functions: • Alerting (LJ and many RUSQ reviews are notices) • Selection (Choice is designed to aid academic librarians) • use of symbols: + or - or +- or -+ • Peer Appraisal (LQ reviews assist in P and T decisions) • SOURCE: Chen and Galvin, 1975

6. Review Functions (Woodward) • Notification of the published literature • Current awareness of related fields • Back-up to other literature searching • Searching for alternate techniques • Initial orientation to a new field • Teaching aid • Feedback (appraisal) • SOURCE: JASIS 28 (May 1977): 175-180

7. Role of Time Lag • Alerting must be prompt • Many reviews take 5-12 months or more to appear in print

8. The Reviewing Process • Publisher Book Review Editor • Reader Book Reviewer

9. Tiers of Publishers • University Presses (i.e., Cambridge or Oxford; Chicago, Harvard, or Yale) • Trade Publishers (i.e., Academic, Elsevier, Wiley) • Specialty Publishers • for example, ALA, Bowker/Saur, Gale, Garland, Greenwood, H. W. Wilson, Haworth Press, Libraries Unlimited, McFarland, Oryx, Scarecrow • Vanity Publishers (pay to be published)

10. Publishing Output World-wide • Monographic literature is growing world-wide • 269-285 K titles (1955) • 332-364 K (1960) • 521-546 K (1970) • 715 K (1980) • 842 K (1990) • 950 K* (2000) *(projected) • SOURCE: UNESCO or UN Statistical Yearbook, (year)

11. United States Publishing • United States monographic literature is slow growth (about 10% year until recently) • 42K titles (1980); 46K (1990); 122K (2000); 114.5K (2001 preliminary figures). • SOURCE: Bowker Annual, “American Book Title Production, Books” (year).

12. How Many Get Reviewed? • Choice reviews about 6,000 titles a year • Calculate that in percentage terms of all books published • SOURCE: “Book Reviews in Volume Year,” Choice November 1985, p. 403

13. Publisher’s Objective? • To get attention • Judith Serebnick’s study of number of reviews (as opposed to direction) influencing purchase • Wants review and does not care so much about direction of review (either positive or negative)

14. Publisher’s Objective • “A review is better than no review.” • Anonymous publisher

15. Journal Book Review Editor • “Gatekeeper” -- decides what to review • Paid/unpaid position • Scholarly journals do not pay this position • Professional service; national visibility • Shaping taste in the field

16. Review Editor continued: • Maintains a file of reviewers (resumes) and their interests • Determines length of the review based on space and importance • LJ, 150 words; LQ, 1100 words (review essays, 2500); NYRB, 1500 words

17. Review Editor continued: • Maintains a statement of reviewing policy (e.g., advance copies) • Sets deadline for review (two weeks to several months)

18. Review Editor continued: • Reads review • Corrections--return to reviewer • Edits manuscript • May send advance review to publisher for comment on factual errors

19. Ethical Issues • What should happen to review copies of books: • After being listed in “Books Received” column? • After being judged out-of-scope for the journal’s mission?

20. Book Reviewers: Who? • Who are they? • Library school educators (F. N. Cheney holds record: 5,819 “Current” in WLB and 2,044 in “Recent” RSR). • Practitioners • Non-librarians (Choice policy)

21. Book Reviewers: How Much? • Compensation: • Copy of book, CD-ROM or software • Review in print (national audience); line on resume • Copy of the journal or offprints of review

22. “Too Many Positive Reviews?” • “A sample of 300 reviews shows they • tend to be too positive (not really critical) • tend not to evaluate or compare • tend not to be reliable • tend to provide recommendations that don’t follow evaluations” • SOURCE: Sweetland, James H. "Reference Book Reviewing Tools: How Well Do they Do the Job?" In The Publishing and Review of Reference Sources. Ed. by Bill Katz and Robin Kinder. New York: Haworth Press, 1986. The Reference Librarian 15. • SOURCE: Fialkoff, LJ 119 (January 1994): 90.

23. Ethical Dilemmas • RUSQ 43 (Spring 2004): 275. • Joseph Janes’ Introduction to Reference Work in the Digital Age; reviewed by Phillip M. Edwards, PhD student, I-School at University of Washington • Any ethical situation here?

24. Elements of Review • Bibliographic Citation (aka house style) • may be provided by journal • reputation for exactness or sloppiness • Price of Reference Books • 17 MRW are increasing faster than CPI (1981-1984) • “Pricing us out of the market,” AL July/August 1985, p. 506-507. • Contents

25. Review Contents • Catchy opening (NOT “This book…” or “The author…”) such as an idea of interest • Thesis • Main points (3) • Additional points; own ideas • Objections and shortcomings • Relate to other works • How does it change our concept/approach to topic • Snappy close

26. Review Closing • Direction of review should be clear by now • Need not give a specific recommendation • Author’s name, position, and institutional affiliation

27. Types of Reviews (Butler, 1934) • Descriptive • contents; list of table of contents; shorter reviews are more likely to be merely descriptive • Evaluative • analysis; longer review; “verbosity is no automatic indicator of excellence.” • Incidental essay • springboard for some topic • Orientation • historical; comparative; lengthy; LQ “Review Essay”

28. 20th Century Schools • Impressionistic • Absolutist • Freudian • Marxist • Theoretical • Textual • New Criticism • Post-Modern movements

29. Impressionistic • Immediate personal reaction • Sole purpose of art (books) is to move one’s being. Purpose is emotion. Books, CD-ROM, or software for review must grab you. • “Alienation effects”--justifying not reading the book • Book as prop. Entertainment value.

30. Absolutist • One objective truth • “unalterable” law • G. B. Vico (18th century) was initially an absolutist

31. Marxist • New York Review of Books • social and economic factors • Materialistic reductionism

32. Theoretical • Analysis • ALA Booklist “Guidelines” (see 220 class Webpage) • Reprinted in Cheney and Williams’ FRS (1980)

33. Textual • Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America • descriptive or analytical bibliography. Methods of printing or book production generally and how these influence the text.

34. New Criticism • AKA objective, cognitive, or ontological school • Often associated with John Crowe Ransom (The New Criticism,1941) • Looks at form of literature which provides the meaning and value; individual work is the unit of analysis • Scientific as opposed to the historical context approach • Combines the Freudian and Marxist

35. Formalism • Victor Shklovsky, Vladimir Propp, and other Russian critics (early 20th century) • plot structure • narrative perspective • symbolic imagery • Developed into structuralism in France

36. Deconstructivist • Jacque Derrida in France (1960s) • Examination of methodology • Involves a questioning of the many hierarchical oppositions • In order to expose the bias (“the privileged terms”) of those tacit assumptions on which Western metaphysics rest

37. Role of Reader and Author • Reader may write to editor/reviewer • Author may write to editor/reviewer • disavowal of work • respond to criticism (see P. W. Filby’s October 1989 AL article about his book which received 19 favorable reviews and one periodical which labelled it “Not recommended.”) • policy of publishing letters and responses

38. Reader Response Theory • A kind of Aesthetics of Reception • German critic Wolfgang Iser and other proponents • which examines readers’ responses to literature in a cultural and historical context.

39. Develop Your Own Style • Reference books are what they are? • Is there an interior, individual, or practical meaning? • Is there a deeper meaning? Something hidden?

40. Favorable and Unfavorable Update • Study of Periodical Abstracts-Research II (PAR II) of 1600 journals: • January 1986 (69.4% favorable) to September 1992 (71.8%), reviews are becoming more favorable (Table 2) • Shorter reviews are more favorable (75.3%) than longer ones (64.4%) (Table 3) • Humanities (72.4%) more favorable than social sciences (69.1%) than sciences and technology (68.5%) (Table 5) • SOURCE: Greene and Spornick, JAL (November 1995): 449-453.

41. Ten Most Favorable LIS Journals • Wilson Library Journal (now defunct) • Booklist • Library Journal • Choice • School Library Journal • Publishers Weekly • New York Times • New York Review of Books • RQ (now RUSQ) • TLS • SOURCE: Greene and Spornick, JAL (November 1995): 449-453

42. Personally Interested in Reviewing? • Watch journals for notices • LJ, C&RL, JAL have requests from time to time • Obtain a brand, new book • write a review • send it to editor as an example • Write the editor • send sample • send current resume • Find someone who already reviews to recommend you

43. Other Questions? • Anything else that I haven’t talked about that you want to know about...?