fewer books, more forum

December 22, 2007 4:41 AM

The bookforum site deserves to be brought to the attention of right thinking MeFis everywhere. It like a collection of really good front page posts: annotated collections of 10 or so links from disparate sources on a common theme.

Some things I have enjoyed:
a discussion of santa's crimes against humanity by Robert Anton Wilson
Prospect magazine's the most overrated and underrated works of 2007 (the movie atonement wins overrated)
Why rural americans can't get nutritious food
The coming super continent (you've got 250 million years to update your maps)
The ugly early career of Denis Kucinich
And as you might hope, lots and lots of book reviews.

posted by shothotbot (9 comments total)

So apparently, there is this guy, sometimes known as rex. And he, in some sort of ritualized bear baiting way, makes a comment about MetaFilter on his yearly blog round up which stirs people up. Well it turns out that his best of the web post is really good and thats what made me take another look at the bookforum site, so thanks Rex! You're terrific!
posted by shothotbot at 4:50 AM on December 22, 2007

Well, sometimes Rex is right. I like this blog. Thanks shothotbot.
posted by maryh at 5:16 AM on December 22, 2007

BookForum is also a good magazine, sort of like The New York Review of Books. It only comes out quarterly, but it is so packed with articles it takes a long time to read, high content, low noise.
posted by stbalbach at 6:38 AM on December 22, 2007

It's a lovely blog. Too bad the feed is just a poopy one line description that isn't enough for me to judge whether it is an interesting post or not.
posted by srboisvert at 7:57 AM on December 22, 2007

The Kucinch article is an epic hit piece - unfortunately, it's so hellbent on painting the guy as the bastard son of Satan and Castro that I have a hard time evaluating the repportage regarding the little guy's mayoralty. And Clevlanders about with long enogh memories to comment?
posted by mwhybark at 9:46 AM on December 22, 2007

Holy cow, mwhybark -- Dennis Kucinich was a catastrophe for Cleveland. His mayoralty is remembered as the baddest of the bad old days (not all his fault) here. I first met him when he was a teenager. My band had been hired to play for a fund-raising dance for his first campaign for public office (the late sixties, some minor post in city government). Nobody showed up for his dance, so we played a few songs, packed up, and shot the bull with Dennis -- at that time our age group peer. I recall trying to talk him out of wanting to be a politician, and advising him to get into rock and roll. At the time, I was pushing the "Chuck Berry for President" agenda that had -- a few months earlier -- gotten me barred from the White Panthers. Dennis didn't know who Chuck Berry was. But he was very determined to make a career out of the politician thing. We honestly felt very sorry for the poor deluded kid, sitting all alone with the band in an empty social hall in some deteriorating Polish neighborhood in Cleveland. He didn't even have long hair. What a loser. And now he's got that pretty wife...

By the way, this Bookforum site is really outstanding. Thanks shothotbot.
posted by Faze at 12:35 PM on December 22, 2007 [1 favorite]

Political Theory Daily Review was the original blog created by one Alfredo Perez which the print magazine Book Forum kindly gave an online home, much as the Washington Monthly incorporated Kevin Drum's Calpundit into its site as Political Animal. And, as you can see, the original http://politicaltheory.info/ link leads to its new home. But, as with Politcal Animal, Political Theory Daily Review is the blog and not Bookforum magazine itself. And as Political Theory Daily Review, it is no stranger to these pages. Double Post.
posted by y2karl at 12:24 PM on December 25, 2007

Interesting background, y2karl. Do you think that Alfredo Perez doing the book forum front page blog? Didn't political theory have the arts and letters daily three column format, or am I misremembering?
posted by shothotbot at 8:42 AM on December 26, 2007

Hmm, what will Google say ?

One of the non-economic weblog's I used to check regularly was the Political Theory Daily Review. Hardly an inspiring name, to be sure - but in fact it was an intellectual treasure trove of daily finds, ranging far wider than the name might suggest. Book reviews, interviews, academic papers, controversies big and small. Richer, more eclectic, more up-to-date and more lively than the better known Arts & Letters Daily.

The blog is no more, but its author, the hyperactive Alfredo Perez, now posts his daily gleanings on the front page of the journal BookForum. The main difference is that they are now grouped thematically...

The editors are to be congratulated for hosting such a great public service. And thanks to Alfredo, now approaching his fifth year of daily posts, for an astounding and sustained achievement.

In praise of Alfredo Perez
New Economist
November 28, 2007

See also Kinja page:

About this site. We are pleased to be working with Alfredo Perez as the editor of this extraordinary diary of events and ideas.

bookforum.com/home
posted by y2karl at 9:48 AM on December 26, 2007