“Being broke and growing up in a not exactly small, but not exactly
book friendly city, these reviews were often as close as I got to the
books themselves and it was comforting to know that somewhere out there
were folks that got off on that new novel smell just as much as I did.

Most of my working life pre-writing was split between libraries and
bookstores and that’s where I first discovered the holy trinity of
Kirkus, Publisher’s Weekly and Poets and Writers, along with a whole
gang of other writing related rags.

After this revelation my
productivity dwindled to just above nonexistent, as just about every
moment was spent with my nose between the pages of one of these wordy
journals. Luckily I was surrounded by other booksluts who shared my
addiction. I mean, these were books we were talking about-serious
business! Plus PW came out like every week and I didn’t pick up my 1st
copy until I was like 19, I had a lot to catch up on.”

–Kwan Booth, Boothism, describing his inner life as a book review fanatic