53431. Editorial
- Publication Date:
- 06-2008
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Abstract:
- Book reviews, seemingly so simple, are, as any book review editor will know, so challenging. They are, now more than ever, indispensable. Word processing, digital research and, more generally, the industrialization and commercialization of academia, have made the manufacturing of books faster and easier. There are many more law books published today than ever before. Book reviews are not only a way of keeping up with what is published, but also of getting a sense of the content and value of books one simply has to read, of books one should, but never would, read, of books that one neither should nor could read (but which one's library ought to purchase) and, finally, a rare species of a book review, those titles with which one should not bother at all, e.g., so many of those conference 'edited' books (which normally means a motley bag of uneven quality with no academic editing at all and often not even copy editing). The same features of contemporary academia and publishing are responsible for the plethora of 'learned' journals, the articles in many of which are rarely read by anyone but the author and, perhaps a hapless editor and referee. And then there are the Working Paper series (which these days are, thank God for small mercies, never actually on paper, Occasional Research series, and the Blogsphere which renders, say, yesterday's World Court decision already old news tomorrow.