A Geeky Book Soap Opera.

A couple weeks ago I read what I thought was an interesting article in the New York Times about how many newspapers are shortening their book sections or cutting literary editor positions because readers are starting to get their reviews from other places, such as a book blog. This trend reflects a broader problem for the newspaper industry as most of us are email, blackberry and internet dependent these days.

Although I’m a loyal, faithful advocate and reader of the New York Times Book Section, I freely admit that I get very few of my book recommendations from professional book reviewers. I tend to read the books that my peers are reading because we have similar tastes and life experiences. In addition, I have found perfect strangers through the Bloggosphere with similar tastes in music, television and movies, so it makes perfect sense for me to reach out to them for a recommendation before I turn to the New York Times book section.

And sometimes, after a hard week of work, a girl likes to read an amusing piece of Chick-Lit and I don’t find many favorable reviews in the San Francisco Chronicle Pink Pages.

However, I have nothing but the utmost respect (and envy) for those who are paid to write professional reviews of book.

About a week after the NYT article came out, this jerk at the LA Times, wrote a scathing retort accusing book bloggers of trying to usurp the role of Book Reviewer. He didn’t just stop there. He went on to question the formal training of a prolific book blogger by revealing his background in the auto parts industry, suggesting that perhaps a former auto parts employee couldn’t possibly be qualified to write about books. (The auto parts turned book blogger addresses the LA Times article here.)

This literary snobbery offends me greatly. Would the LA Times reviewer have called out a blogger who works as a practicing attorney? How about an accountant? A medical doctor? Are we to assume that only highly educated academics can truly enjoy a piece of literature and write eloquently about it?

Let's take this a step further, should we start screening potential readers before they purchase a book to ensure that they are smart and sophisticated enough to read it?

One of my biggest problems with professional book reviews (and it would seem that others share this opinion) is that many reviewers try to impress us with their research on the author and their knowledge about a genre or a body of work, and yet, they are unable to tell me if the BOOK IS GOOD!!!

I understand, being a former journalism major, that it’s not the reviewer’s role to form an opinion about the book, but to inform the reader that the book is out there, if it’s well-written, and what the plotline is. They are supposed to be impartial and not sway the reader.

Yet this is why I turn to the bloggers. I like that I can receive an honest opinion about a book by someone who is my age and my gender and who has similar taste in books. I WANT to hear someone say, “READ IT” or “Don’t bother.” Sure, some blogs are really poorly written and slapdash, but, hey, we aren’t claiming a byline on a major metropolitan newspaper so what’s the big deal?

As I book blogger and a reader of book blogs, I can honestly say that for the most part, we have no intent or desire to put the literary editing field out of business.

I respect reviewers and I look to them for news, for advice, and even for modeling how to write a good book review. So, they should really lighten up … and realize that their readers are also potential book bloggers. And they shouldn’t piss us off.

Because we will blog about them next.