Reading Room, a new blog on the online New York Times, is a virtual conversation that gives a twist to the traditional book-club motif. With two layers of dialogue taking place simultaneously, one between selected commentators and the other by the general public, the reader gets a medley of thoughts about a book and its author, similar to a robust conversation moving across the table at a Manhattan Upper West Side dinner party. Informal, informed, with tidbits of insider information tossed around as an added treat.
Dialogues run for a month. Previously, a new translation of War and Peace filled the Web and The Education of Henry Adams is now being addressed by a panel that includes Jill Abramovitz, Thomas Mallon, Gary Hart, and Jennifer Schuessler. Newspaperwoman, novelist, politician, and book-review editor offer different perspectives, all discerning and well worth a look (or is it a read?). None self-identifies as an academic; the group comes across as four guest lecturers in a home-schooled class. In the sidebar on the Reading Room’s homepage, you’ll find the complete Henry Adams text in PDF form, the 1918 review of the book that appeared in the Times, as well as several other ancillary footnotes.
This online innovation follows another fascinating experiment undertaken by the Times, the graphic blog by Maira Kalman, postings that ran on the first Wednesday of the month for one year. Her art, the Principles of Uncertainty, is a pure joy to follow. Lyrical in form, unique in format, whimsical and serious in content, her graphic essays — part biography, part history, part narrative, part unconnected thought, are carefully linked stories, read from top to bottom, like a Chinese scroll, unfolding their beauty frame by frame. While they follow a tradition of episodic art that has its roots in 14th-century fresco cycles, the modernity belies a narrative that exhibits free association of its characters and thoughts. Although there are no longer new images put up on the Web site, the installments can now be seen in print, in the old-fashioned book form, thanks to Penguin Press HC.
Kalman, a longstanding children’s author and graphic designer, received a new level of visibility not long after 9/11, when her New Yorker magazine cover (jointly conceived with Rick Meyerowitz), “New Yorkistan,” linked her with another iconic portrait of New York City, Saul Steinberg’s “View of the World From 9th Avenue.”
I applaud the Times’ willingness to venture into the electronic medium that by its very nature links time, space, and content in an ever evolving carousel of ideas, forcing traditional journalism to reposition its delivery of ideas and information, and can — when adventurous — push the boundaries of creativity. Few newspapers are taking risks; most regurgitate facts and figures, adding a few bells and whistles of graphics, video, and sound bites. I confess to finding The New York Times online edition an even more satisfying journalistic experience than the old gray lady is in print.
Perhaps university students, who read print papers less and less, and get their news, reviews, and art online, can be attracted to such sites and be reintroduced to the joy of books, pictures, and ideas. If so, how ironic. And wonderful.
