Though a novel idea, printing book reviews a problematic task

As those familiar pointy white tents were being pitched all over
campus this week in preparation for the Los Angeles Times Festival
of Books, I couldn’t help but get to thinking about how we
deal with literature here at the dB Magazine. And no, I’m not
talking about deciding between a post-structuralist or a formalist
approach to interpreting a text. What I’m referring to is the
much more tangible problem of what exactly we, as a collegiate arts
magazine, ought to do with the massive number of books submitted to
us for review every week.

This is not the first time I have given this matter serious
thought. One look at our cluttered cubicle in the Daily Bruin
office should serve as evidence to the fact that the business of
books is impossible for us to ignore. We’re literally
swimming in the stuff.

But as any regular reader of our publication has no doubt
noticed, it is a rare occurrence that we actually run a book
review. Sometimes we profile an author who is coming to speak on
campus, but regularly reviewing books seems to be a task too
difficult for us to manage, and it doesn’t take too much
thought to figure out some of the reasons why.

For starters, every single one of our writers is a busy college
student. They all have a heavy reading burden to keep up with for
their classes, on top of whatever sadistic reporting assignments we
editors dish out for them on a weekly basis. Convincing them to
read an extra book in a short period of time and then write about
it in an even shorter period of time is difficult, if not often
impossible. Most of our writers are also not paid a regular salary,
something I would change if I could, but until UCLA Student Media
emerges from the Dark Ages and starts coughing up the dough,
strong-arming my reporters into staying up all night to finish some
potentially mediocre novel is not something I’m willing to
do.

The other obvious problem is the sheer number of books we have
to choose from in deciding what to review. The film industry
releases hundreds of films every year. The book industry publishes
tens of thousands. In my time serving as dB Magazine editor since
last summer, I have never once requested a copy of a book from a
publishing house. Nevertheless, a steady stream of them flows into
my mailbox and onto my desk daily. Sorting through them all would
be a full-time job in and of itself. I love reading, but I also
have a lot of other work to do.

This isn’t to suggest I don’t understand why
publishers are so persistent in sending us advanced copies of their
titles. With the recent increase in availability of self-publishing
technology, the number of books available today is considerably
more than ever before. In a business based on sales, getting even
the smallest edge in terms of publicity in such a competitive
market can make an enormous difference.

Nor am I suggesting our failure to regularly review books is
somehow acceptable. Resigning to the notion that because we are a
collegiate publication, our abilities are somehow more limited than
any other newspaper is, in fact, unacceptable. But no matter how
long I have tried to wrap my brain around this basic problem, I
have yet to come up with a solution. My only solace is that even
major newspapers face some of the same problems.

For example, the decision of whether to review self-published
books is one every publication in the country has come up against
in the last few years. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Bob
Hoover went so far as to publish his paper’s policy on the
matter, explaining why he won’t review self-published books
because “They have not passed muster by professional editors
and marketers or been found good enough to carry a company’s
brand.” But at the same time, an endless stream of articles
have popped up recently proclaiming the revolutionary possibilities
of print-on-demand technology, citing case after case of success
stories where authors have self-published and gained a considerable
following. Clearly, not every book deserving of publication is
actually picked up by a traditional publishing house. The book
business is a risky one, so editors often stick with what they know
will sell.

In the end, the entire issue still leaves me with more questions
than answers. Perhaps as I stroll though the Festival of Books this
weekend, a solution will present itself. In the mean time,
I’ll keep staring at the pile of books on my desk, hoping
their authors are having better luck elsewhere.

If you would like to review books for dB Magazine, please
apply to write for us next fall. E-mail Mathis at
[email protected] for details on the application
process.