A chuckle about vanishing book reviews

A lot of talk lately about the vanishing "art" of book reviewing.

Well, finally someone is taking it seriously: Steve Colbert on Comedy Central. On his show Salman Rushdie says, "I'd hate to be a young writer starting out now, when there's nobody paying attention to your book out there. And if you're a reader going into a bookstore, you've got no idea what to pick up."



Of course the other side of the story is this: Today's young, hungry writer has hardly a snowball's chance in hell of getting their book reviewed through traditional review channels. Rushdie's next book will be reviewed everywhere, even if it stinks. And that's one reason why newspaper book-review sections are going by the wayside.