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Excerpts, or Reviews, or...
July 1, 2008

It seems it's Washington Post week for me; this a.m. I opened up the local paper of choice and saw an article about Bit o' Lit, which I'd first learned about when I had lunch last month with fellow NBCC members Scott McLemee and Mark Athitakis -- we walked past one of the Bit o' Lit dispenser boxes near the Dupont Circle Metro. All three of us were intrigued and Scott wondered out loud "I wonder how they're getting advertising."

Evidently they aren't. The piece says that Bit o' Lit founder Shannon McDonald "has had little success in selling advertisements, which means she hasn't seen much in the way of profits." 

That's really unfortunate, since McDonald has a great concept: "A bite-size (8 1/2 -by-5 1/2 -inch) magazine containing four or five excerpts in each issue, Bit o' Lit made its debut May 5 and has come out on alternate Mondays since then." For people like Mr. Bethanne, who rides the Metro every day, this idea is intriguing: pick up a free publication that will help you decide if a book is worth reading, or not. Until everyone has some kind of e-reading device and there are WiFi depots at every corner, something like Bit o' Lit is probably the most efficient way to get several book excerpts at a time in front of readers.

But...is that what readers want? 

McDonald believes it is. "One of the things MacDonald remains adamant about is that the magazine will not include reviews. She maintains that people have such different tastes that they should be able to judge the books for themselves...'A good portion of the population . . . does not read book reviews, because there is no common language to talk about writing,' she said. 'Someone could say 'This is the best book in the world!' and that could mean nothing to me.'"

So, dear readers, my question today is about whether or not reviews matter. I think they do, but I won't bore you with my reasons just now. I'd rather hear about what makes the biggest difference to you in choosing a book: is it a review, or an excerpt, or...

Is it that more elusive thing -- a recommendation? 

What makes you decide a book is worth picking up and reading? Advertisers don't necessarily know.

Posted by Bethanne Patrick on July 1, 2008 | Comments (4)