 | New York Review Of Books
Availability: Your first issue should arrive in 12-16 weeks. Average customer review: (15 customer reviews) |
Product Description
The New York Review of Books has served as a forum for writers and thinkers to discuss not only current books but also the provocative and complex issues of American culture, society, economics, politics, and the arts.
- Amazon Sales Rank: #267 in Magazine Subscriptions
- Format: Magazine Subscription
Amazon.com Review
If all book reviews aspire to the condition of magazines, the New York Review would represent the best realization of this aspiration to date. It retains the character of a book review, published 20 times a year. But since its inception over 30 years ago, the reviews have been long, dense (recent years have brought the practice of footnotes), and learned. Significant fiction is pondered, along with bits of poetry, slices of science, and gobs of political science, history, economics, biography, art, and music. The reader of the New York Review easily feels relieved of the cultural burden of having to read a book once having completed the sufficient burden of having read a thorough review of it. Although the impeccably left-leaning editors would be loathe to agree, only major figures or discourses in the European intellectual tradition need apply to their pages for consideration. Hence, for example, although occasional "pieces" on certain worthy movies now appear, popular culture is not a serious concern. Lately, the Review has given over more of its pages (from 60 to 80 each issue) to journalistic reports--the latest political currents in China or Russia, the state of affairs in Kurdistan or at Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo Bay. Its core identity remains, however, that of a magazine unequaled for addressing intellectual "issues"--Darwin under attack again, pedophilia continuing in the Church, whither globalization--through reviewing them as these issues appear in book form. --Terry Caesar
Most helpful customer reviews
36 of 36 people found the following review helpful.
By Stephen Moss
A playground for the mind. Covers a wide range of subjects. Each review is a full essay on the subject of the book. Many reviews compare and contrast several recently published books on the same subject. Learned and sophisticated yet fully accessible. An on-going liberal arts education and the easiest way I know to keep the eclectic learning that a liberal arts education aspires to.
30 of 30 people found the following review helpful.
By BD
New York Review of Books is the best publication in the United States for serious readers. But as any of us who have them stacked up for years know they we need to get it on Kindle. What's the delay?
31 of 33 people found the following review helpful.
By W. P. Gardner
Sometimes I read all the reviews in the NYRB, even reviews of things I'd probably never buy, or art exhibitions I wouldn't go to. They are so well written that I learn a lot. I have some favorite writers who show up there a lot, such as Garry Wills.
In magazines like Time the reviews are so consumer-oriented that you really wouldn't bother with them unless you were actually considering buying the book or recording that they're talking about. But in the NYRB, they really talk about interesting stuff. There are also a lot of essays that aren't reviews, exactly, but just reflect on the state of the world. The New Yorker used to have long essays like that, but since Tina Brown started running it, they don't do that any more. (Basically, with the New Yorker you used to get free "books", because some of those essays were as long as short books. Now you don't. There are still longish essays like that in the NYRB, sometimes published in parts.)
There is also something aesthetically pleasing about the size and layout of the magazine. It's tabloid-sized on newsprint (but not newsprint that yellows with time) and is very readable. No glossy trash.
I checked my last issue and the new-subscriber price listed there is $64/year. So Amazon's price is OK. If you get an issue on the newsstand for $4.50 and then subscribe, you'll pay $68.50.
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