I'm a big fan of two web sites: http://www.ConsumerSearch.com and
http://www.RottenTomatoes.com.  Both sites associate products with
quality ratings culled from numerous publically available, mostly
professional, reviews.  The result is consistently reliable,
convenient advice -- a one-stop shop to choose a good digital camera
or refrigerator, in the first case, and a good movie or videogame, in
the second.  I'm now looking for a similar site to help me choose
books.  Customer ratings at sites like Amazon or Epinions are nice,
but don't sample widely enough from professional reviews in
newspapers, magazines, and journals.  My criteria for Site X,
therefore, is as follows:
1) Site X reviews a wide variety of books, both fiction and
non-fiction, ideally classified by genre.
2) For each book, Site X identifies the best reviews available
(looking to intelligent sources like the New York Review of Books,
Times Literary Supplement, Science, Nature, etc. . ) and somehow
summarizes these into a consensus rating.
Are you out there, Site X?

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Request for Question Clarification by justaskscott-ga on 03 Feb 2003 20:51 PST

I have found an offline source that reviews a wide variety of books,
classified by genre, and summarizes reviews from major offline and
online sources into a consensus rating.  Would this source suit your
needs?

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Clarification of Question by fotenos-ga on 04 Feb 2003 10:54 PST

To JustAskScott-ga:

In clarification, it's hard for me to imagine an off-line resource of
sufficient breadth and currency to be useful to me.  However, I'd
still like to know if any resource, on- or offline:
1) covers the kind of article-length, intelligent reviews of a New
Yorker or American Book Review, when they're available (not just
paragraphs from review factories like Kirkus or Library Journal)
2) combines all reviews into a standard consensus rating.

I'm already aware and have access to OCLC's Book Review database (it
doesn't digest reviews) and the New York Review of Book's Reader's
Catalog (useful, but unclear methodology).  Thanks for your help,

-aff

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Request for Question Clarification by justaskscott-ga on 04 Feb 2003 14:23 PST

Do you need a resource that generates its own full-length reviews --
or just a resource that summarizes the full-length reviews into a
paragraph for each book?

When you say "sufficient breadth", do you have a minimum number of
books and genres in mind that the resource should cover?  (I feel
confident about "sufficient currency" -- this resource does cover new
books.)

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Clarification of Question by fotenos-ga on 04 Feb 2003 18:17 PST

*Do you need a resource that generates its own full-length reviews --
*or just a resource that summarizes the full-length reviews into a
*paragraph for each book?
Again, I'm looking for something like http://www.rottentomatoes.com:
it refers to and summarizes available reviews and combines them into a
single rating that can be compared across books.

*When you say "sufficient breadth", do you have a minimum number of
*books and genres in mind that the resource should cover?
No minimum in mind; the more, the better, obviously.

-aff

There is a database that is available to libraries that has exactly
what you are looking for.  They review over 7,000 books a year and
cite 3 to 5 reviews culled from over 100 sources.  This isn't
available on the web (as far as I have seen).  Where are you located
and I can check to see if it is available in your area.

-THV

I have not been able to find an online compendium of reviews from
different sources with a "consensus rating." Perhaps another
Researcher will have better luck.

For well-written, brief reviews of current books, I highly recommend
the American Library Association's "Booklist" magazine, which now has
an online counterpart:

http://www.ala.org/booklist/index.html

The Booklist archives are also quite useful:

http://www.ala.org/booklist/archive.html

To pinkfreud-ga:
Thanks for the link to BookList; at least it offers breadth.

To tar_heel_v-ga:
Thanks for your help.  I have access both to the St. Louis Public and
Washington University libraries.