London Review of Books (1-year auto-renewal)

Those arriving at this Amazon page doubtless have some interest in books. In reading the reviews I note some disappointment with the contents of the London Review. Maybe if I provide a brief summary of one issue you can decide whether or not this is the book mazazine for you.

About fifty percent of the contributors to a current issue are PhD academics.

Here is a sampling of the articles in this issue:

1. Writers, Readers, and Reputations: Literary Life in Britain 1870 to 1918.

2. A University of Chicago philosophy professor explores philosopher Alisdair McIntyre's conceps of truth and ethics as found in the recently released 2 volumes of McIntyres essays.

3. A review of Kostal's book "A Jurisprudence of Power:Victorian Empire and the Rule of Law".

You like fiction? In this issue you'll find reviews of the books of novelists Edward St. Aubyn, and M.J. Hyland. There is also an article about the German author Gunter Grass who reveals in a book that he was a member of the Waffen SS during WWII. Unfamiliar authors? For me too (except for Gunter Grass). Next month though they will be reviewing American author Richard Ford's new novel. Now him I know.

Rather than write a review of glowing praise or bleak condemnation I thought it best to simply tell you what's in it, and let you make up your own mind if this is the kind of book magazine you would like to read. Like the New York Review of Books you'll find a variety of articles that aren't about a book at all, and some books that are reviewed merely serve as a Hitchockian mcguffin for the reviewer to expand at length his opinions about the subject of the book.

I suppose a hierarchy of book magazines in terms of sophistication might be Bookmarks for the everyday fiction reader (It's a good magazine, in my opinion), and then, a step above, the New York Times Review, on up to the New York Review of Books, and then at the top the London Review of Books. Mind you I am not categorizing these mags in terms of the quality of writing. They all are good. It's just that if you want to be able to enjoy all of the London Review's article it might help if you were a polymath.

The London Review of Books is simply the best generalist journal on topics of literature, the arts, culture, history, politics, philosophy published in the world today--it now beats the NY Review of Books in terms of giving you the full picture and leaves the TLS back in the dust. If you want to get your bearings in the world of culture and politics, this is must reading.

Denis Jonnes

Washington D. C./Kitakyushu, Japan

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I love this journal. The way they review books is like no other book review page or magazine I've ever read. I find that by reading these articles we can as Americans involved in the world of ideas understand European thinking. Either way I'm renewing next year!

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The London Review of Books is, without a doubt the best literary journal in the world: at the same time erudite, entertaining and informative, each issue is a foray into a world of knowledge that is all too lacking in other publications and media. There was a time in my life when I couldn't afford to put my heating on in the bitterly cold British winter, but I never thought to cancel my subscription to the LROB. Highly recommended.

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I love books, and I read a great deal. The LROB is the standard for reviewing (as well as NYROB). It's oversized and made of newsprint, and ships in a plastic sleeve...a big deal as the NYROB doesn't and sustains more damage in transit. The personals section is hysterical, and almost worth the subscription price alone for the laughs.

BUT, this is high brow stuff. The books reviewed are generally historic or political, with a few fiction titles thrown in. The articles are in-depth by established authors (Colum McCann, Jonathan Franzen) and often link to other books in the same genre or style. This doesn't cover any mass market titles, and seems to be quite shy of small press publishers as well.

It's a great resource, and a treat to browse, but I still find the best variety and reviews online. And also, it makes you quite jealous for some of the literary events over the pond that you miss out on here in the US...you can only read about the exhibitions and readings and drool.

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