"The Book" To Provide A New Voice In Book Reviews

Forgive me if this has gotten around: as I mention above, I'm in Europe, at meetings, and therefore not seeing much news. But I've received word that The New Republic is starting a new section on its website called The Book. As TNR literary editor Leon Wieseltier wrote in his explanation of it, "the plan was to rush in and fill the vacuum in book criticism that is being left by the carnage in American newspapers" -- only better.

The Book plans to run a review most days, as well as to aggregate book criticism from not-the-usual suspects. It will also contain "classics" -- reviews of books drawn from the TNR archives -- and other features, like a roundup discussion of books on a particular genre, like thrillers. Some features are yet to be developed.

And though The Book is named in the same way as many TNR blogs, like The Vine (about the environment), it won't be a blog, Wieseltier says.

Some of this sounds similar to Arts & Letters Daily. But not exactly. In any case, I certainly welcome it. Anything of quality that adds to the discussion of books has got to be a godsend to publishers and readers everywhere.