"Being broke and growing up in a not exactly small, but not exactly book friendly city, these reviews were often as close as I got to the books themselves and it was comforting to know that somewhere out there were folks that got off on that new novel smell just as much as I did.

Most of my working life pre-writing was split between libraries and bookstores and that's where I first discovered the holy trinity of Kirkus, Publisher's Weekly and Poets and Writers, along with a whole gang of other writing related rags.

After this revelation my productivity dwindled to just above nonexistent, as just about every moment was spent with my nose between the pages of one of these wordy journals. Luckily I was surrounded by other booksluts who shared my addiction. I mean, these were books we were talking about-serious business! Plus PW came out like every week and I didn't pick up my 1st copy until I was like 19, I had a lot to catch up on."

--Kwan Booth, Boothism, describing his inner life as a book review fanatic