On Being a Book Reviewer

One of the pleasures of reading widely is recommending books to others. I have always done this informally, but in my adult life, I have also occasionally done it more formally, through published book reviews. My first taste of such reviewing came perhaps thirty years ago, when for several years, I had a column in the alumni bulletin of the boarding school I attended in India; my column was titled "Books about India." Later I was the book review editor for, and reviewed several books myself for, the journal "Peace Review"; those reviews were of books related to peace and social justice topics. Since then, I have fairly frequently published book reviews in various professional journals in my field and related fields. One of the reasons I so much enjoy writing this blog is that I can informally "review" books of various types that I read for my own enjoyment.