NYT Book Review Still The Boss

Hallelujuah! The New York Times Book Review, that indispensable tool of the serious bibliomaniac, is on line as part of the wonderfully rich and eminently readable New York Times on the Web: Books. The cyber edition is expanded from the print edition in many sensible ways. The best seller lists, for example, have been stretched to include titles "also selling well" (making 30 titles in each category) and books reviewed in the online edition are hyperlinked in the lists. Similarly, reviews of selected books are supplemented by links to material from the newspaper's enviable morgue files. And all issues for the current calendar year are archived at the site for easy access. But that's not all: the big news is that you can search more than 50,000 reviews going back to 1980 by author or title. But wait, there's one more "only on the web" feature: "Life & Times: Major Authors. In Their Own Words and Ours." The first installment of this little gem featured a profile of Vladimir Nabokov, streamed audio of the author himself reading from the celestial Lolita, and archived reviews of many of the master's most influential books. We at Virtual Ink are overwhelmed with pleasure and must go lie down for a while. You, on the other hand, should make haste to partake of this booklovers' feast.

NEW: The web version of The Los Angeles Times Book Review, while not the literary powerhouse that the New York Times Book Review is, has been considerably improved by a redesign. The Review's contents are more accessible, the text is more readable, and the whole section just feels more agreeable. The latimes.com publishers are eager for your feedback on the new look, so why not drop in and drop them a line with your comments?

The Boston Book Review will be delighted if you subscribe to its analog edition after visiting the digital version, but its home on the web is much more than self-promotion. The site's interface, embellished with virtual woodcuts, is clean and spare, with the emphasis where it should be: on content. The full text of many current and archived reviews, interviews, essays, and grab-bag departments is easy to find and easy to read. The word is at home at BBR.

Hungry Mind Review has book reviews, of course; essays, yes; guest features by learned minds, naturally; author interviews, you bet; woodcuts for that warm retro feel, sure. Indeed, all that you would expect from an electronic journal billing itself as "an independent book review." (The print version is distributed free of charge by independent bookstores in terraspace.) But there's more. We especially like HMR's sponsorship of an annual awards program for children's books, now in its fifth year, and its collection of "Questionnaires," a regular feature whose contributors include the likes of E. Annie Proulx and whose purpose is to start something.

The New York Review of Books can't be accused of giving away the store at its website. Still, those who enjoy the occasional wrestle with self-consciously intellectual lit crit will find the site worth visiting for some full-text highlights of the current issue, a handful of back issues (including a facsimile of the very first print issue), and the personal ads. The site is clean, relatively low bandwidth and easy to navigate -- as it ought to be, given its modest offerings.

The Voice Literary Supplement will give you a bit more to sink your teeth into. It combines the book review vehicle of The Village Voice with those of its sister publications LA Weekly and Seattle Weekly. The site is pleasant to look at and uses frames intelligently, but the text of some reviews can be tough to read, with type set in blocks against a series of too-strong background colors. Overall, we like the site for its collection of geographically diverse opinion and most of the attitude you would expect from an old campaigner like The Voice.

And -- although it's not a book review, as such -- for news, interviews and excellent book lists, don't miss good ol' Publishers Weekly. If you're seriously addicted to the book trade, PW will even lob a daily newsfeed at your e-mail in-box every weekday afternoon.



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