View source for Book review

{{Short description|Form of literary criticism}}
{{About|the use of the term in literary criticism|the animated short|Book Revue (film)|other uses|Book Review (disambiguation)}}
{{Redirect|Book reports|the term "Book report" in teaching|Book report}}
{{Redirect|Literary review|the British magazine|Literary Review|the American magazine|The Literary Review}}
A '''book review''' is a form of [[literary criticism]] in which a book is described, and usually further analyzed based on content, style, and merit.<ref name="Princeton">{{Cite web|url=http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=book%20review|title=Book reviews |access-date=September 22, 2011|publisher=Princeton |year=2011 |author=Princeton|work=Scholarly definition document }}</ref>  A book review may be a [[primary source]], an opinion piece, a summary review, or a scholarly view.<ref name="VirginiaTech">{{Cite web |url=http://www.lib.vt.edu/find/byformat/bookreviews.html |title=Book reviews |access-date=September 22, 2011 |publisher=Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University |year=2011 |author=Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University |work=Scholarly definition document |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110910082750/http://www.lib.vt.edu/find/byformat/bookreviews.html |archive-date=September 10, 2011 }}</ref> Books can be reviewed for printed periodicals, magazines, and newspapers, as school work, or for book websites on the Internet. A book review's length may vary from a single paragraph to a substantial [[essays|essay]]. Such a [[review]] may evaluate the book based on personal taste. Reviewers may use the occasion of a book review for an extended essay that can be closely or loosely related to the subject of the book, or to promulgate their ideas on the topic of a fiction or [[non-fiction]] work.

Some journals are devoted to book reviews, and reviews are indexed in databases such as the ''[[Book Review Index]]'' and ''[[Kirkus Reviews]]''; but many more book reviews can be found in newspaper and scholarly databases such as [[Arts and Humanities Citation Index]], [[Social Sciences Citation Index]], and discipline-specific databases.

== History ==
[[Photios I of Constantinople]] has been called "the inventor of the book review" for his work, ''[[Bibliotheca (Photius)|Bibliotheca]]''.<ref>{{Cite book | edition = 3rd | publisher = Clarendon Press | isbn = 0-19-872145-5 | last = Reynolds | first = L. D. and N.G. Wilson | title = Scribes and Scholars: A Guide to the Transmission of Greek and Latin Literature | location = Oxford | year = 1991 | page = 321}}</ref>

== Types of reviews ==

=== Academic reviews ===
[[Academic journal#Book reviews|Academic book reviews]] are both a form of academic service and a contribution to the academic literature.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Runnels |first=Curtis |date=January 1994 |title=Book Reviews |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1179/009346994791547544 |journal=Journal of Field Archaeology |language=en |volume=21 |issue=3 |pages=357–390 |doi=10.1179/009346994791547544 |issn=0093-4690|url-access=subscription }}</ref> They are frequently published as a section or part of academic journals.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Gorraiz |first=Juan |last2=Gumpenberger |first2=Christian |last3=Purnell |first3=Philip J. |date=2014-02-01 |title=The power of book reviews: a simple and transparent enhancement approach for book citation indexes |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-013-1176-4 |journal=Scientometrics |language=en |volume=98 |issue=2 |pages=841–852 |doi=10.1007/s11192-013-1176-4 |issn=1588-2861|url-access=subscription }}</ref> They help the profession understand what has been happening in their profession, and work on the emerging intellectual challenges of their field.<ref name=":0" /> However, not all academics are incentivized to take on the work required in a book review, because they are often not rewarded for that work.<ref name=":0" /> Book reviews can be used to predict which monographs are likely to have subsequent citations.<ref name=":1" />

=== Newspaper and magazine reviews ===
Newspaper reviews became prominent in the 18h century, as a form of reader responses.<ref name="Lavin">{{Cite journal |last=Lavin |first=Matthew J. |date=2020-01-30 |title=Gender Dynamics and Critical Reception: A Study of Early 20th-century Book Reviews from The New York Times |url=https://culturalanalytics.org/article/11831-gender-dynamics-and-critical-reception-a-study-of-early-20th-century-book-reviews-from-the-new-york-times |journal=Journal of Cultural Analytics |volume=5 |issue=1 |doi=10.22148/001c.11831|doi-access=free }}</ref>  They were common throughout the 19th and 20th century.  However, the [[decline of newspapers]] began in the 21st century, and book reviews have suffered along with other newspaper sections.  The [[Associated Press]] (a service many newspapers subscribe to that produces articles shared among all of them) announced it would no longer be producing book reviews in 2025, although they would still publish stories about current events that intersect with major books.<ref>{{cite newspaper |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2025/08/18/ap-ends-book-review-service/ |title=The future of book reviews looks grim |first=Ron |last=Charles |date=August 18, 2025 |newspaper=The Washington Post }}</ref> 

In academic criticism, popular book reviews in newspapers and magazine reviews are often used to evaluate the relative audience and impact of books during a period.<ref name="Lavin"/>

==See also==
*[[Australian Book Review]]
*[[BookBrowse]]
*[[Booklist]]
*[[The Book Club Bible]]
*[[Claremont Review of Books]]
*[[Kirkus Reviews]]
*[[Library Journal]]
*[[Literary criticism]]
*[[London Review of Books]]
*[[National Book Critics Circle]]
*[[The New York Review of Books]]
*[[Publishers Weekly]]
*[[Self-Publishing Review]]
*[[Shelf Awareness]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
*Chen, C. C. (1976), ''Biomedical, Scientific and Technical Book Reviewing'', Scarecrow Press, Metuchen, NJ.
* {{cite journal|doi=10.2307/419632|jstor=419632|title=Reviewing the Book Reviews|journal=PS: Political Science and Politics|volume=22|issue=3|pages=627|year=1989|last1=Ingram|first1=Helen M.|last2=Mills|first2=Penny B.}}
* {{cite journal|doi=10.1300/J124v03n01_03|title=The Sunny Book Review|journal=Technical Services Quarterly|volume=3|issue=1–2|pages=17–25|year=1985|last1=Katz|first1=Bill}}
*Lindholm-Romantschuk, Y. (1998). ''Scholarly book reviewing in the social sciences and humanities.'' The flow of ideas within and among disciplines. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press.
*Miranda, E. O. (1996), "On book reviewing", ''Journal of Educational Thought, Vol. 30'' No. 2, pp.&nbsp;191–202.
*Motta-Roth, D. (1998), "Discourse analysis and academic book reviews: a study of text and disciplinary cultures", in Fortanet, I. (Ed), ''Genre Studies in English for Academic Purposes'', Universitat Jaume, Castelló de la Plana, pp.&nbsp;29–58.
*{{cite web |url-status=dead |last1=Nicolaisen |first1=J. |date=2002a |title=Structure-based interpretation of scholarly book reviews: a new research technique |work=Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Conceptions of Library and Information Science |pages=123–135 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050818220548/http://www.db.dk/jni/Articles/Abstract_Colis4.htm |archive-date=Aug 18, 2005 |url=http://www.db.dk/jni/Articles/Abstract_Colis4.htm }}
* {{cite journal|doi=10.3152/147154402781776808|title=The scholarliness of published peer reviews: A bibliometric study of book reviews in selected social science fields|journal=Research Evaluation|volume=11|issue=3|pages=129–140|year=2002|last1=Nicolaisen|first1=Jeppe}}
* {{cite book|doi=10.1075/tlrp.12.04nie|chapter=2. Reviewing printed and electronic dictionaries: A theoretical and practical framework|title=Lexicography in the 21st Century|volume=12|pages=23–41|series=Terminology and Lexicography Research and Practice|year=2009|last1=Nielsen|first1=Sandro|isbn=978-90-272-2336-4}}
* {{cite book|doi=10.1017/CBO9780511816345|title=That Noble Dream|year=1988|last1=Novick|first1=Peter|isbn=9780521357456|s2cid=158050677 |url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780521357456}}
*Rampola, Mary Lynn (2010). "Critiques and book reviews", ''A Pocket Guide to Writing in History'', Sixth Edition, pp.&nbsp;26–28.
*Riley, L. E. & Spreitzer, E. A. (1970), "Book reviewing in the social sciences", ''The American Sociologist, Vol. 5'' (November), pp.&nbsp;358–363.
* {{cite journal|doi=10.1007/BF02910823|title=Scholarly reviewing and the role of choice in the postpublication review process|journal=Book Research Quarterly|volume=4|issue=2|pages=10–18|year=1988|last1=Sabosik|first1=Patricia E.|s2cid=144380238 }}
* {{cite journal|doi=10.1126/science.131.3408.1182|title=Notes on the Reviewing of Learned Books|journal=Science|volume=131|issue=3408|pages=1182–1187|year=1960|last1=Sarton|first1=G.|pmid=17773924|bibcode=1960Sci...131.1182S }}
* {{cite journal|doi=10.1007/BF02025830|title=Quantitative analysis of a visible tip of the peer review iceberg: Book reviews in chemistry|journal=Scientometrics|volume=6|issue=6|pages=433–443|year=1984|last1=Schubert|first1=A.|last2=Zsindely|first2=S.|last3=Telcs|first3=A.|last4=Braun|first4=T.|s2cid=32648183 }}
*Snizek, W. E. & Fuhrman, E. R. (1979), "Some factors affecting the evaluative content of book reviews in sociology", ''The American Sociologist, Vol. 14'' (May), pp.&nbsp;108–114.
* {{cite journal|doi=10.1002/(SICI)1097-4571(19980401)49:4<364::AID-ASI6>3.0.CO;2-3|title=Use of scholarly book reviews: Implications for electronic publishing and scholarly communication|journal=Journal of the American Society for Information Science|volume=49|issue=4|pages=364–374|year=1998|last1=Spink|first1=Amanda|last2=Robins|first2=David|last3=Schamber|first3=Linda}}
* {{cite journal|doi=10.1002/asi.21588|title=Book reviews in humanities research evaluations|journal=Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology|volume=62|issue=10|pages=1979–1991|year=2011|last1=Zuccala|first1=Alesia|last2=Van Leeuwen|first2=Thed|s2cid=33669460 |s2cid-access=free |hdl=1887/17652|hdl-access=free |url=https://scholarlypublications.universiteitleiden.nl/access/item%3A2837889/view }}

==External links==

{{Wikiversity|Writing a Book Review}}
* {{wikiquote-inline}}
*"[https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/book-reviews/ Book reviews]" at The Writing Center - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

{{Books}}{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Book reviews| ]]
[[Category:Literary criticism]]