Why book reviews don’t sell books anymore

Adam Penenberg’s funny and insightful column on why book reviews don’t sell books anymore. Personally, I do sometimes buy and read books because of the review in something like the New York Review of Books. But mostly I read the reviews so I don’t have to read the books. I’ll bet I’m not alone.

3 thoughts on “Why book reviews don’t sell books anymore

  1. Michael Fitzgerald, since you write about the power of ideas and the people who bring them to bear on business, technology and culture and since your recent PVI Eink story in Globe was so good, I sent you email, but you forgot to reply, you rat, try again danbloom at gmail dot com, i wonder if you might want to look into the neuroscience of reading on paper vs reading on screens, there is big story here to do, for you, sir, maybe for the Globe mag? interivew maryanne Wolf at Tufts and Bill Powers down at the Cape, his book HAMLET BLACKBERRY coming out in mid 2010, this story about whether paper reading is suerprior or not to screen reading is VERY important, no? I got the goods on all this here:
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  2. and in your very good E Ink story, you told readers what Vizplex means via amalgam but you did not tell them was PVI means, why not? Prime View International….why not spell it out? I live just down the road from them here in Taiwanville. It was very good article. Loved it. Nice.

  3. Thanks, Danny. I didn’t forget to reply. You only emailed me yesterday, when I was a very busy boy. Can 24 hours not pass without offense being given?

    Your point on PVI is a fine one. I’m not sure why I didn’t catch that.

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