What We Talk About When We Talk About Links

In the interest of transparency, I thought it important to spell out as best I can how this blog chooses what to link to in its daily round-up. First and foremost, this is the blog of the National Book Critics Circle. So I'm going to be linking to articles by or about winners of our book awards, as well as finalists and NBCC members. That group includes a huge range of writers, from Toni Morrison to Cynthia Ozick, James Wood to Susan Wood to Thomas Mallon, Walter Kirn, Camille Paglia, Sven Birkerts and more. We have members who have written 3 reviews and others who have written close to 3,000.

Each day there are probably 100 possible links, and I choose links based on a number of different factors -- the quality of the writing, an interest in geographic range (the world of books extends beyond New York), the "importance of the story" (if it appears above the fold on the front page of a newspaper, for example), parity (so that we have the widest range of writers and voices, etc), humor, whether a story been linked to death on other blogs, has been ignored by mainstream press, and a number of other intangibles, like how much tea I've had to drink before I click post.

I'll also be linking to articles about books or writing or publishing, both on and off the book page. The health of newspapers, for instance, is very important to book reviewing, as is the health of writers -- without whom book critics would have no livelihood. We're also interested in the safety and liveliness of free discussion around the world, without which there are no books. Our prize is open to any book published in the English language in this country during the calendar year, so I think it's important to interpret "book culture" as broadly as possible. We have awarded books by a Peruvian, a Belarusian, a Brit, a German emigre, and loads of Americans. If there's something you'd really like to see more of drop me a line. Otherwise, thanks for reading.

-- John Freeman

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