Ogden Standard-Examiner | 1927-07-15 | Page 4 | Bring Book Reviewers down to Earth

BRING BOOK REVIEWERS DOWN TO EARTH Perusal of ot one or a dozen dozen- or a hundred book reviews of ot the aver aver- average average age modern design and construction construction construction tion is enough to leave any real book lover lo with a heavy heart and an aching head Of at all aU the schools of ot contemporary writing scientific or aesthetic the book reviewers' reviewers school seems to have sunk to the lowest depth and it is producing more moro dull English than any an other crowd of ot pen wielders and type type- typewriter tl typewriter e- e writer wrestlers in the writing trade The trouble seems to be that the reviewers write by formula fo mula In their introductions they try to as as- assign assign assign sign the book a place in literary history and give glye winded long pros and cons about what new movement this book heralds If It not this they write a philosophical es es- essay essay es- es essay say on something about as to the book in hand as the Siege of ot Troy is relevant to the batch of or cookies your our Aunt Samatha's second cousin baked for tor your our pa and ma the year after they were vere married It Is apparently a rule of the book reviewers' reviewers league to tell as little as possible about the book Itself and what is between its cov coy ers era Book Dook reviewers who look upon themselves as critics and there- there therefore fort fore try to write highbrow litera litera- literature literature ture have missed their calling The need of the genuine g literary world is for tor simple book reporting pre pre- presented presented presented in compact writing