A book review is a form of literary criticism in which a book is merely described (summary review) or analyzed based on content, style, and merit.
8-502: The Times Literary Supplement ( TLS ) is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK , a subsidiary of News Corp . The TLS first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to The Times but became a separate publication in 1914. Many distinguished writers have contributed, including T. S. Eliot , Henry James and Virginia Woolf . Reviews were normally anonymous until 1974, when signed reviews were gradually introduced during
16-542: A contribution to the academic literature. They are frequently published as a section or part of academic journals. They help the profession understand what has been happening in their profession, and work on the emerging intellectual challenges of their field. However, not all academics are incentivized to take on the work required in a book review, because they are often not rewarded for that work. Book reviews can be used to predict which monographs are likely to have subsequent citations. Newspaper reviews became prominent in
24-550: Is edited by Martin Ivens , who succeeded Stig Abell in June 2020. The TLS has included essays, reviews and poems by D. M. Thomas , John Ashbery , Italo Calvino , Patricia Highsmith , Milan Kundera , Philip Larkin , Mario Vargas Llosa , Joseph Brodsky , Gore Vidal , Orhan Pamuk , Geoffrey Hill and Seamus Heaney , among others. Many writers have described the publication as indispensable; Mario Vargas Llosa , novelist and
32-487: The Book Review Index and Kirkus Reviews ; but many more book reviews can be found in newspaper and scholarly databases such as Arts and Humanities Citation Index , Social Sciences Citation Index , and discipline-specific databases. Photios I of Constantinople has been called "the inventor of the book review" for his work, Bibliotheca . Academic book reviews are both a form of academic service and
40-612: The 2010 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature , had once described the TLS as "the most serious, authoritative, witty, diverse and stimulating cultural publication in all the five languages I speak". Literary review A book review may be a primary source , an opinion piece, a summary review, or a scholarly view. Books can be reviewed for printed periodicals, magazines, and newspapers, as school work, or for book websites on
48-519: The Internet. A book review's length may vary from a single paragraph to a substantial essay . Such a review may evaluate the book based on personal taste. Reviewers may use the occasion of a book review for an extended essay that can be closely or loosely related to the subject of the book, or to promulgate their ideas on the topic of a fiction or non-fiction work. Some journals are devoted to book reviews, and reviews are indexed in databases such as
56-469: The editorship of John Gross . This aroused great controversy. "Anonymity had once been appropriate when it was a general rule at other publications, but it had ceased to be so", Gross said. "In addition I personally felt that reviewers ought to take responsibility for their opinions." Martin Amis was a member of the editorial staff early in his career. Philip Larkin 's poem " Aubade ", his final poetic work,
64-537: Was first published in the Christmas -week issue of the TLS in 1977. While it has long been regarded as one of the world's pre-eminent critical publications, its history is not without gaffes: it missed James Joyce entirely, and commented only negatively on Lucian Freud from 1945 until 1978, when a portrait of his appeared on the cover. Its editorial offices are based in The News Building , London. It
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