Book Report and Book Review

Book reports and book reviews are the two ways to know about a published book. While book reports intend to report the existence or release of a book, the book review offers a thorough analysis of the contents of the book.

Book Report

As Barzun and Graff have pointed out a report is an important means of communicating the contents of a publication to a wider audience. Book reports serve the purpose of making the readers aware of the existence of particular literature which has just been realised by the publishers. Book reports normally appear in the literary columns of national and international dailies and even of vernacular newspapers. Not frequently, book reports are also found in the pages of journals and magazines. Book reports are also available on the internet. The book report acquaints the interested reader and students about the existence of a particular publication addressing a particular theme.

The contents of a book report give a short description of the author’s profile, the title, the theme its divisions into chapters. It also presents the general outlay of the publication. It also reports on the contents which can be used either by the layman or the interested scholar. Book reports play a valuable role as Arthur Marwick points out in the dissemination of publications. Book reports are different from Book reviews. The reporter does not claim any authority of knowledge about the theme handled by the author of the book. There is no criticism or comparative study involved. The release or existence of the work is just reported.  

Book Review

The book review is an indispensable part of the critical evaluation of new knowledge sources that are produced at a rapid speed. A book review is different from a book report as it does not merely proclaim the existence of a work. The book review is a scholarly critique of a publication undertaken by an authority, on his individual initiative, or on behalf of an institution. The book review evaluates the new publication or edition in relation to existing literature acclaiming the scholarship of the author or condemning the mediocrity of the work.

The book review systematically analyses a new addition to the corpus of knowledge by evaluating, comparing, and criticising in the light of received historiographical knowledge. The reviewer sharply peruses the book, examining the presentation of the theme and ideas, its print, grammar, sentence construction, errors in spelling, cover design, and more importantly the knowledge it claims to have produced.

The book reviewer in reputed publications can raise the acceptability of the book to popular heights and bring fame and fortune to the author. At the same time, a book review can destroy the intellectual claim of a new author and diminish the popular consumption of the work.

The scholar, researcher, student, or the interested layman is today confronted by a boom in publications or a flood in information through the print media. He/she is unable to keep pace with the speed at which new works are produced. The reader has of necessity to be selective. He/she has to be guided and directed toward good and standard publications. He/she must not be misled by old wine in a new bottle or spurious works claiming to be scholarly. The book reviewer plays the role of an erudite guide. Academicians, the scholarly world, and lay readership have come to depend greatly on critics of known intellectual integrity who review books for reputed journals, magazines, newspapers, etc.

It is the book reviewer who directs the innocent as well as the discerning reader to the new publications in bookstalls or libraries. The reviewer helps the reader in discovering ‘a must-read book’ or ‘indispensable read’. Society needs the book review as a dependable guide to a genuine scholarship at a time when it is inundated by publications of various hues and shades making tall claims.