What’s wrong with the Washington Post blog Short Stacks? First of all, it’s not a blog. It’s a weekly column – except it’s not even a weekly column, it’s only a weekly list of books matching a theme. If I was being nice, I would say that Short Stacks is trying to expand what a blog can be – but if that’s what they’re trying to do, they’re failing. If I was being more critical, I would say that Short Stacks is merely appropriating the trendy term “blog” in order to capitalize on a upsurge in readership of a particular medium, while failing to uphold the conventions of that medium. What are these conventions? Well, links would be nice. Or maybe some critical approaches to books rather than lassoing some summaries. Or interviews. Or books news that doesn’t fit into the conventional “article” format. Also, variety – listing books along a theme gets boring after, say, the third week or so.
In essence, Short Stacks is playing it safe. There are no ardent opinions expressed. Get someone with personality to write the blog, and give them a long leash. I mean, the LA Times blog Jacket Copy is not one of my favorite blogs, but at least they’re going in the right direction. And the NY Times blog Paper Cuts isn’t bad to read when you’re hard up for other material. If you don’t want institutionalized examples, there are lots of other examples of what a literary blog can be – many of them listed in the links just to the left of the Short Stacks column. The Washington Post Book Review is quite good – if would be a shame to see its name tarnished by such a gimmicky approach to blogging.
One thought on “A Very Short Stack”
The Washington Post Book Review had been a joke for years and is not much read even by
literary people in Washington. Yardley is a
blow-hard and Dirda is unimpressive. A good
example of how out-ot-touch the WPBR is: in
their recent “blog”, or whatever it is, with
editor Michael Dirda, Dirda was asked his opinion of Denis Johnson and answered that
long ago, he managed to read half of one of
Johnson’s novels (who knows which?), but that
was the sum of his knowledge. Can you imagine anyone editing a major book review in this country who has never managed, or
bothered, to read even one novel by Denis
Johnson? Dirda’s irrelevant. I live in
D.C. and constantly thank God I can read the
NYTBR and the TLS online. In literary terms, D.C. is a third world country and the
Post Book Review and it’s attendant “blog”
both reflect that.