Times, They Are a-Shrinking

We don’t know about you, but Sunday mornings are about sleeping in, getting breakfast late, then scurrying back home to read the LA Times from the comfort of your unmade bed. When you read the Times on Sunday, there are many things you get – Comics, Current, Parade, West. Those trifles we could take or leave. Really. What gets us going is the blessed, blessed Book Review section. We have come to count on this little gem every week.

You may take issue with its content, you may praise or bemoan the reviewers, you may question the books reviewed, you may even wish it was more like the NYT (or not), but it is one of the only remaining stand-alone book review newspaper sections in the country. This makes sense because, well, we live in Los Angeles: a city of culture, of free-thinkers, of art, of ideas. Of residents who celebrate diversity, the clashing of ideas and the exploration of the world around us. It makes sense that the LA Times Book Review would remain in the LA Times.

We are also a town of rumor and innuendo, and the word on the street is that the LA Times is looking to revamp its Book Review section. Or do away with it altogether. The reason? Ad revenues are down and cuts must be made somewhere. This concerns us. This worries us. This pisses us off. Whether these book reviews are part of your Sunday ritual or if you’d prefer never to read one in your lifetime, this should stress you out too.

Why? The LA Times is the barometer by which many other publications take their cue. Less book coverage in the LA Times could likely signal a reduction in book coverage nationwide. Less book coverage nationwide means fewer books are purchased, so fewer books are published, so fewer books are written. What does this mean for Angelenos? Less thinking, less freedom, less challenging of established ideas. Less art and beauty released into the world. Never a good thing.

We've been sitting on this news for awhile. Hoping it was rumor, pretending it wasn't true. It's a sad, sad day when one of the major newspapers in the country can't keep a book review section from being shoved into the Saturday Opinion section. We'll follow this story as it develops.

On the upside: LAist will simply have to provide you with your Sunday book review fix. On an even upper side: Perhaps we'll be like the heroic readers of the SF Chronicle, who demanded their book review section back. And they got it.

Photo by amayzun via Flickr