Hey, Tom!

You can say that again!

Sometimes directed hunting is not so great either. For instance: Try purchasing fiction based entirely on reviews done by people you don't know or picture books based on the cover illustration. There is absolutely nothing like walking in with a list, picking an item off the shelf, and looking at the paper quality, the binding, the print size, the style of the illustrations (if any), and reading a representative morsel to make an informed choice.

For factual books, a publisher will sometimes give you a clue (Dorling Kindersley, for instance, seldom produces a stinker, and most university presses do a good editorial job), but some small gems you never see reviewed but can pick up somewhere. Unless, assuming the world has been catalogued on the Net, you never look.

And how much mainstream criticism is devoted to comic books? Not much. It's a shame, too.

Up to my armpits in book review journals--
Mary Anne

P.S. -- If anyone is puzzled about the subject line of this post, you may find its derivation here. Or find a copy of A Hog On Ice, and Other Curious Expressions by Charles Earle Funk -- a small gem you might be able to pick up somewhere. ;)