Globe Books section?

15 comments on “Globe Books section?”

1. Claire says:
   August 16th, 2008 at 7:38 pm

   There is a note on page 2 of the main section stating that the Books section is taking a break this weekend and next, and will return on Aug 30.

2. DGM says:
   August 17th, 2008 at 7:49 am

   I was wondering about this myself. The Books section pullout is the only reason I buy the G&M Saturday edition.

3. Craig says:
   August 17th, 2008 at 11:02 am

   I called before I saw the note on page 2; I realized it was not simply an assembly error when the website had no new content. The customer service representative could say only that it was a two-week hiatus. I immediately put a vacation stop on for next weekend. I don’t want a Globe that has no Books section. I wrote a Letter to the Editor to this effect, and I cc-ed the newsroom and the books editor. I’d encourage everyone to do something similar. It might simply be a summer vacation, but with the lamentable fate of Books sections throughout North America, this could well be a testing of the waters. Readers need to let the paper know their thoughts.

4. Blair says:
   August 17th, 2008 at 10:09 pm

   Thanks Claire–I missed the note on page 2 & was disappointed!

5. Remi Gunn says:
   August 18th, 2008 at 1:53 am

   There goes my reason for reading the globe. Hopefully, it’s a one time thing.

6. Alex says:
   August 18th, 2008 at 7:38 am

   Bigger news is that the Star is cutting their book section in half.

7. Matt C. says:
   August 18th, 2008 at 7:44 am

   Given the state of newspaper book sections, when I hear “two-week hiatus”, I’m reminded of a friend’s childhood reminiscence, how, when the family’s cat passed away, her parents instead told her the cat had left voluntarily because “Mr. Ruffles got married!”.

8. Ingrid says:
   August 18th, 2008 at 9:01 am

   I think the reasoning for the hiatus was to give both Martin Levin and Jack Kirchoff (the only editorial staff) a vacation. There isn’t any backup staff, which shows you how lean-to-the-bone the Books section is. If they both want vacations, well, the section has to be suspended for a wee spell.

   (C’mon, the guys deserve a vacation…)

9. Dan says:
   August 18th, 2008 at 10:22 am

   I’ve heard through the grapevine, from a very credible source, that this is not a VACATION thing, but as Craig has suggested, a testing of the waters by the higher ups, and that it may be a sign of things to come. If we don’t let the editors know we value the section, it may not be there much longer, or certainly not as the weekly stand alone section we’ve come to expect.

10. Ingrid says:
    August 18th, 2008 at 11:57 am

    Oh. I was just going on what Martin Levin told the Quill & Quire.

11. Peter says:
    August 18th, 2008 at 12:14 pm

    Writing to editors seems an excellent idea, but my information is, they’re on vacation and planning fall reviews. Has this not happened before? Other lit mags have hiatuses as well around now or xmas – sometimes disguised as issues covering twice as much time. So do blogs – Lit Saloon for one.

12. Monica says:
    August 18th, 2008 at 12:27 pm

    I just think its ludicrous that one print medium would give so little value to coverage of another print medium. It says a lot about our world, when the Toronto Star has three Wheels sections, which never take a hiatus and a paltry nod to the literary arts. One would think that newspapers should respect the written word a bit more. The book section is the only reason i buy the Saturday G&M, and i wrote to the editor and told them so.

13. rr says:
    August 18th, 2008 at 5:40 pm

    Forget the book section disappearing. Has anyone read the NASCAR section in some of the Maritime papers? Now that’s scary.

14. Nicole says:
    August 18th, 2008 at 6:55 pm

    Monica, I too was going to comment re: The Star’s Wheels section. Yes, let’s cut writing about the arts in favour of writing about cars. Is it just me or has this felt like a hard few days for the arts? The Globe’s Books always has a backlog of reviews in the pipes, so it’s bullshit that they couldn’t prepare a couple of issues in advance of this ‘vacation.’ People keep writing, people are reading, and yet there’s barely any frigging critical discussion about literature (besides here) in this country. And now this? Yes, Books was imperfect, but it’s pretty well all we got. What will happen if it goes for good? Are we gonna be stuck with Shelagh Rogers and her phony-smiley navel-gazing old lady-pandering lit. show, scheduled for the hacked-up CBC’s fall schedule? The horror.

15. Monica says:
    August 18th, 2008 at 10:04 pm

    That’s what i was thinking, Nicole. Surely they have enough that they could slap something together for a few weeks while the overworked guys get some vacation.

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