Letters

Your Inside Track column (Francine Fialkoff, "Don't Blame the Reviewer," LJ 4/15/03, p. 68) is an attempt to confuse the reader regarding issues of free speech within the context of a particular book review. You speak of upholding the values of intellectual freedom and a free press, citing the last sentence of the review of Diana Abu-Jaber's Crescent (LJ 3/1/03) as something that needs protection. That last sentence—"Essential for all libraries and for all readers interested in understanding the people our government wants us to despise"—was a purely political cheap shot….

To justify the remark, you say LJ publishes reviews from both sides of the political spectrum, but you fail to cite an example of, perhaps, a conservative reviewer ending a review with something like: "Essential for all libraries and for all readers interested in understanding the left-wing, radical, lost-somewhere-in-the-60s individuals in our midst."

You say that if it hadn't been included, "the nature of what we do will be compromised." You're already compromised. You are being disingenuous for your own political purposes.
—Ted Ciambor, Monroe Community Coll. Libs., Rochester, NY

I applaud your Inside Track column ("Don't Blame the Reviewer," LJ 4/15/03, p. 68). Political correctness has become as strangulating and dangerous as any other form of attack on freedom of expression. Thank you for having courage and principles and standing by them and your reviewers.
—Martha Campbell, Croton Free Lib., NY

Your Inside Track "Don't Blame the Reviewer" (LJ 4/15/03, p. 68) misses something very important; in fact, it completely ignores it, while canting merrily and irrelevantly about intellectual freedom, etc. The letter from a reader objected to the last sentence of the review: "Essential for all libraries and for all readers interested in understanding the people our government wants us to despise."

Does a reviewer who engages in such measureless distortion deserve to be believed? I would not believe a word from such a reviewer, which is too bad for the book…. The reviewer apparently is incapable of rational thought, or is blinded by hatred of her own country, or is mad with rage against the President, or all of the above….

Whatever you may think about going to war against Iraq or terrorists, nothing the Bush administration has ever said or done could lead a rational person to conclude that it wants us to hate Iraqis or Arabs or Muslims in general…. President Bush has repeatedly made clear the distinction between fighting the Saddam Hussein regime and going to war against the Iraqi people. He has repeatedly stressed that we are fighting the regime but liberating the people….

You can have all sorts of opinions represented in book reviews, but patent nonsense ought to be edited out; anything less is either cowardly or else a cover for malice. I'm sure you'd see my point if a racist review of a book about Martin Luther King were submitted to LJ.
—Charles Silverman, Adult Svcs. Libn., New Castle Cty. Lib. Syst., DE

I just read "Don't Blame the Reviewer" (Inside Track, LJ 4/15/03, p. 68). It takes courage to write controversial books, to read controversial books, and to express controversial opinions…. You and the book reviewer had the decency and courage to sign your name to your opinions, unlike the author of the complaint. If this person only wants to read anonymous, nondescript, sanitized works, s/he needs to stick to reading the Vanish can under the bathroom sink.
—Jill Rourke, Continuing Education, Wyoming State Lib., Cheyenne

We were delighted by the starred review you gave our book, Notes on Directing, by Frank Hauser and Russell Reich (LJ 4/1/03, p. 102). For a small press like ours, your recognition gives us a tremendous boost—particularly with our first title….

Our joy is diminished only slightly by one small error of fact in the review and an unfortunate omission. The review states that the book delivers "highly useful bits of advice from…Alec Guiness (sic), Richard Burton, and Kevin Spacey." Actually, while those three actors were all directed by coauthor Hauser, they are not among those quoted….

Also, your once-in-a-blue-moon feature on building a theater collection (Barry X. Miller, "The Show Must Go On at the Library," p. 67–70) failed to mention our title, even though it was starred in the same issue…. We thought readers interested in developing a collection of theater arts titles might miss the LJ recommendation of our book…. Thanks for the opportunity to point it out.
—Max Farber, RCR Creative Pr., New York

LJ regrets publishing incorrect and incomplete information in the May 15 Audio Video 2003 supplement. The correct address for ordering from Baker & Taylor is 100 Business Center Dr., Pittsburgh, PA 15205; 800-775-2600; www.btol.com. Also, Book Wholesalers, Inc. (BWI) can be reached at 1847 Mercer Rd., Lexington, KY 40511; 800-888-4478; www.bwibooks.com.