A BOOK REVIEW is essentially the answer to certain very ordi-
nary questions that occur to one as a new (or old) book is
discussed--

Who wrote the book?

What is it about?

How does it compare with other books by the same
author?

How does it compare with other books on the same sub-
ject or in the same field?

And other simple questions of a similar character.

Book reviews may be--

Written (for newspapers, magazines, trade publications,
etc.);

Spoken (as broadcast or read at literary teas, women's
club meetings, etc.); or

Silent (as one, in his own thinking, mulls over, analyzes,
and evaluates some book he has read).

Which means that book reviewing can be a vocation, an
avocation, or simply a form of literary appreciation, as per-
sonal and private as enjoying good music or the stage.

Or, it may be a form of stern, scientific mental discipline.
The story is told of a psychology professor who wrote a re-
view of every book he read, only to throw each review im-
mediately in the wastebasket. Not that they were not worth
publishing. Some were. But that was not their primary pur-
pose. Good psychologist that he was, he knew that one re-
members best those things to which he has actively reacted.
When one thinks enough about a book to do a review--with

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