During a free-wheeling browse on the Net I stumbled on CRITICAL MASS, a blog that might interest those with a flair for books, reading. The site features commentary on literary criticism, publishing, writing and all things pertaining to the US-based National Book Critics Circle (NBCC)

Book critic Jerome Weeks, till recently on the Dallas Morning News staff, gives us his take on book critics - they must read in gross tonnage, read hastily in trains, planes and lunch-lines, and read books no one should bother with.

Unlike a film or concert that one can endure for two hours, reading a pointless book (to write a review) can take days.

Reading, that doesn’t really sound like work to most others, can seem like prison sentence (to a book columnist).

Reading for pleasure can be particularly appealing because it is so counter-culture - so counter to our prevailing techno-bully-rapid-response-profit-margin mindset.

Reading is slow, it’s private, and it’s non-electronic.

Reading fiction is particularly suspect in our Get Ahead Nation.