Guilty, your honour

The Guardian's John Freeman has a small post that nails something that I've often felt kind of bad about.
Reading a bunch of books, well sure. But reading a few thousand book reviews a month takes a big bite out of "real" reading, if you like.
It's one thing to keep up, but it doesn't take the place of doing the reading.
Says Freeman,

"In a way, pre-judgement is a necessary evil of criticism: there are far more books published than anyone could possibly read, busloads of awarded writers who aren't actually worth reading. There's no way to approach this forest gingerly. You need a buzz saw to clear some breathing room, gain a sightline, and criticism has to have enough teeth and ubiquitous availability to be that instrument."

Yeah, a buzz saw. Or I could just get off the damn internet.

Posted by Dave