This summer, THIS magazine urges the CBC to review more books, and revive the art of professional book-reviewing, rather than paying people to review Hollywood films.
But, the vital question is, does a book review make for more readers?
Or is a movie adaptation the only thing that is really going to bump a book onto bedside tables?
Ultimately, what brings any form of entertainment to life is that it has social currency. If there is buzz… if people are talking about a) the latest scandal afflicting Jon & Kate, b) Michael Jackson’s death, c) Annabel Lyon’s new book, or d) Sarah Palin’s memoir (25% more God!), it is as if there is a wind whooping through the yard, and those particular garments are puffed full of life, and dancing around on the washing line.
It is our interest in things that gives them currency – if we talk about books and writers and ideas, those books will grow a readership. Hence, the success of Canada Reads, to get people talking about certain books, to send them in great hordes to second hand bookstores and libraries and amazon.ca…
For these crudely articulated reasons, the Whistler Readers and Writers Festival (entirely dependent on there being a culture of reading) is amped to be working with the Tyee, Vancouver Review, and the Georgia Straight, who are all keeping the conversation spicy, sparkling and substantial. Because really, there’s no reason for the sagas of Jon and Kate to ever enter your frontal lobe…
