#sundayread for June 28, 2015
By Wade KwonMy picks for #sundayread for June 28, 2015:
- Promote an event with a real Web presence
- Public radio needs more weekend hits, and fast, by Michael Arnold @radioarnold
- Book reviewing has lost its serrated edge, by Frances Wilson (via @BooksLIVESA)
- Flashback: Social Media Day 2012: Birmingham tweetup at J. Clyde
- Personal finance expert @Ramit Sethi answers questions on Reddit
- The Definitive History of Personal Style Blogs, by @CaseyMLewis
- Y’all Connect: Winners from our 2015 conference and survey
- Sail Away: The Oral History of Yacht Rock, by @lordandrewtoal
- The future of loneliness, by Olivia Laing @olivialanguage (RT @lermann)
- Flashback: The @WadeOnTweets 1,000 follower prize blowout!
- The Most Daring Cliffhanger in “Star Trek: The Next Generation” History by @AaronCouch
- Anti-Intellectualism Is Killing America, by @ahadave (via @dianabill @amtant1972)
- Between Kickstarter’s frauds and phenoms live long-delayed projects by @CaseyJohnston
- 20 Things You Might Not Know About “Office Space,” by Roger Cormier @yayroger
More posts from Wade this week:
- Y’all Connect: Video: Y’all Connect 2015 starts off with … math
- The Birmingham channel: High hopes
The latest #sundayread tweets
- More #sundayread recommendations from me
Wednesday, July 1, 2015, 1:06 am
In answering your question over on Twitter: that piece re: book reviews does ring true. Book reviews used to be concise and cutting. But so were the authors. And the reviewers were much more colorful. These days reviews get painted as mean if anything. Which I get. I do. The wild west-ness of the web has people reeling back on their heels.
One place I think the essay falls short is in sussing out the cause for this trend. It’s not just that there are fewer reviewers out there or that book coverage is lacking. I think a big part of it is that there is such a glut of books published in a year, that reviewers can be picky and adopt a policy of only reviewing the good stuff and ignoring the sub-par. I do this myself to some extent. On my blog I only review books that I feel are 3-5 stars. I want to give folks a reason to read – not a reason not to.
But at the same time I leave 3-5 star and 1 & 2 star reviews on LibraryThing and Amazon. I believe in the power of the aggregate voting communities at both places and, just as a lonely book blogger, I contribute that way and maybe help someone smartly spend their hard earned $25.
I do enjoy the fact that today’s professional reviewers are just that – professional. I’m not sure that was the case back in the day of Blackwood’s. But it sure was more colorful.
Wednesday, July 1, 2015, 11:26 pm
Very insightful.
Weird that the Wild West of the Web hasn’t seen more snarky reviews, instead of fewer.
Thanks, Trav!