Lawrence--hm, OK, I can see _some_ point to such listings. I should add
that one reason I'm a little dubious though is that frankly some of the
books I've got lately are genuinely terrible; I feel that even listing the
information on how to acquire them is plugging them in a way, & I have mixed
feelings about that! It's one thing to give a negative review--I try in
negative reviews (of which there are two out of the five in the current
issue, for instance) to quote substantial chunks from the book in question,
so that a reader has the option of ignoring my opinions & forming his/her
own opinion. (It's happened--I've had at least one reader say that he
thought better or differently of the extracts I quoted than I did. Good to
see that the strategy worked.) But just listing a book might propel the
reader to make efforts--often considerable efforts, given the distribution
problems involved in the small-press world--to obtain something that turns
out not to be worthwhile at all. I suppose the ideal solution (if I had the
space, which I don't!) would be to actually quote brief extracts from books
to give the reader a chance to see what they're like.
all best --N
Nate & Jane Dorward
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