The New York Times Book Reviews 2000

Citation

Fitzsimons, K. (2002), "The New York Times Book Reviews 2000", New Library World, Vol. 103 No. 7/8, pp. 296-297. https://doi.org/10.1108/nlw.2002.103.7_8.296.2

This yearly publication comprises two volumes of book reviews and articles relating to the literary world that have appeared in the New York Times during the preceding year. Volume one covers January to June and volume two covers July to December. There is no introduction, however, the layout is self‐explanatory and the publication does offer a comprehensive index at the end of volume two. In addition to the general index, an index of the authors reviewed and an index of the titles reviewed is also included. In the latter two indexes feature length reviews are highlighted in bold for the reader. The works reviewed in this publication are drawn from both fiction and non‐fiction. The entries are arranged by the date of publication in the New York Times; whether daily, weekly, fortnightly or monthly.

The feature length reviews include the headline from the New York Times plus a short summary of the book to entice the reader. The book details are then given, listing the title, author, publisher, number of pages, price and if the work includes illustrations, but no ISBNs are supplied. Occasionally black and white photographs are included. At the end of each review a little more information about the reviewer is provided, these reviewers tend to be members of the literary establishment or academics.

The publication also comprises less in‐depth reviews such as the Books in Brief sections. The New and Noteworthy Paperbacks sections and the Editors Choice sections, (entitled “And Bear In Mind”), which consists of other recent books of particular interest, both contain very short reviews. Some entries are arranged in categories; for example, crime, children’s literature and science fiction. The reviews provided are brief and include a number of related publications.

Fitzroy Dearborn has designed and presented this work effectively. It is informative, entertaining and actually quite interesting. As this publication covers an array of topics and subject areas from entomology to French history it would undoubtedly be absorbing to the avid book reader as well as appealing to the browser.