My own interest came from the comparison with Candide, which I consider a masterpiece (a word I use very sparingly indeed), which in turn of course is in part a response to the Lisbon earthquake.

On a more general note, few books survive in print 200 years or more, without being very good. Pamela, perhaps, an exception.

http://kimbofo.typepad.com/readingmatters/site-policy.html

Free review copies have been part of the book industry as long as any of us have been reading. In fact, what makes bloggers different from the former sources of reviews such as the daily press or trade publications is that many of us do purchase the books we review, or bring them out of our personal libraries.

The reason why I think a source statement is worthwhile is that much of the blogging world in the non-book field now does feature promotional posts which I feel are an ethical conflict. As your last couple of paras indicate, an indication of source is just another piece of data that we visitors can include in contemplating your thoughts.

In my own case, I’m trying using the caption function with the book cover to indicate where I got my copy. In addition to transparency, it has the additional benefit of allowing me in most cases to include a link where people who might want to buy the book can go.

I’m curious about others’ thoughts on this. As blogs increasingly become the place people look to find new books, what sorts of policies should bloggers adopt? Because blogs can be written by anyone from amateur to professional (and the blogger is always independent to write whatever pops into mind with no editor or manager or committee overlooking their conflicts of interest), it’s a more difficult question to answer than I first anticipated.

We bloggers can be entirely self-interested, promoting books we don’t like in hopes the publisher will continue giving us books to “promote” and not to “review.” We’re often not professionals — at least not professional journalists or reviewers or scholars — so there’s no real way to enforce a disciplined approach; it’s all up to the blogger who can adapt as the blog evolves and as readers make demands. Since many of us started our blogs more as an experiment than as a career or even as a project, many don’t anticipate how these issues might come up.

All of this is so interesting right now when publishers are modifying their own policies because blogging is becoming more and more prevalent. Moving in a new direction, publishers and bloggers can become entangled. Bloggers can become very excited simply by receiving a review copy, whatever the source, whatever the book. This can be perceived as a promotion or sign of acceptance in a beautiful world. To show gratitude the blogger (who is often a simple book lover) might write a glowing review when he or she might have felt ripped off had $15 been spent on the book.

As a point of disclosure in the absence of a finalized statement: no publisher has ever set up a quid pro quo arrangement with me. They have acted honorably, sending me a catalog wherein I can select books I’m interested in, all with the understanding that I might not like it and might tell all readers here that it was not worth their time. I don’t accept books I’m not interested in. I like getting free advanced copies of books I’m interested in.

Also, there is this. The publishers who send me review copies are the publishers I’m interested in promoting: New Directions, Archipelago Books, and the Dalkey Archive. Melville House and a handful of others have sent me a couple of books. I find their publishing projects important and valuable to readers, particularly those interested in world literature. Because of this, I have the very real propensity to promote them despite not liking a particular book they’ve recently published. However, I have never intentionally misrepresented my feelings for a book on this blog. I like these publishers because I like the books they choose to publish. In a way, because they are smaller and fairly independent, they can create the same type of community and following a blog can.

Nevertheless, because of my very real propensity mentioned above, Kevin is right, I need to let readers of the blog know who has sent me a review copy so they can add that to the equation when determining whether to accept my opinion and purchase a book or not.

Such disclosures — and another iteration of what above inadvertently became a type of statement — to come!

I know where the idea was taken!

Great review.