[Susan McLean]

I've mentioned before that I have resolved to do more reviewing on Amazon.com (or other online venues that sell books) when I have the time. I think it can be particularly helpful for poetry books, which often don't get many reviews, online or in print. I don't get much pleasure reading done when I am teaching (and if I read anything then, I don't have time to review it), but during breaks, if I happen to read a book I particularly like, I am trying to make time for writing a mini-review of it. I just posted one on Amazon for Ned Balbo's book The Trials of Edgar Poe and Other Poems. (If I sounded a bit formal in my mention of it on the thread about what people have been reading, it was because I was already in the process of writing my mini-review of it.)

So many of the famous print critics seem to take more pleasure in lambasting poets than in pointing out which ones are enjoyable to read, but I'm more interested in hearing what I might like than what I ought to avoid. If I were writing for a journal, I would feel I had to spend more time on it, and the review would most likely never get done. But I can usually write a mini-review in less than an hour. I have certainly appreciated hearing what other people on Eratosphere like. It has led me to many excellent poets that I might otherwise have missed. It is my assumption that the big online booksellers are the way to reach the largest number of readers. These online reviews can't take the place of the other, more-extensive reviews, which can send people looking for the books in the first place. But they may make a difference in terms of whether potential buyers end up buying the book they are considering. The more positive experiences people have when reading a poetry book, the more likely they are to pick up another one in the future.

Susan