Bloggers vs. print

The supercilious tone of Bob Hoover's article, "Bloggers rush to fill vacuum" (July 18) proves nothing about the lack of value in bloggers' book reviews. It does, however, reveal a great deal about how threatened and lost the dinosaur reviewers like Mr. Hoover feel in the new media landscape.

He suggests bloggers sometimes have hidden agendas. The same can emphatically be said about print reviewers, whom publishers coddle and whose work appears in Book Review sections where publishers advertise. Over the centuries, print reviewers have proven time and again that they are no more qualified to evaluate literary merit than anyone else.

The blogging community is comprised of avid readers, the vast majority of whom have no agenda other than to spread their enthusiasm about the books they love. They are breathing new life into the book publishing industry just when it is most needed.

As a debut novelist whose book came out barely two months ago, I have found the blogging community to be enormously supportive, eager to discover new talent and courageous about expressing their views. My publisher was astonished to see the long line of readers who showed up for my signing at Book Expo America. They were all there because bloggers had spread the word. Notably absent was Bob Hoover or any other representative of the print media in Pittsburgh, where I live.

To paraphrase Chuck Berry, who enthused about a different kind of media revolution: Roll over, Bob, and tell your print-media buddies the news.

Mitchell James Kaplan
Mt. Lebanon

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