Book Reviews Coming to Wion

by Destry Wion  ::  published 18 November 06    

I have been lending a hand as a volunteer copy editor and contributing author over at TXP Magazine for a short while now, which has been an enjoyable distraction from other pursuits. We (me and the others at the mag) have been planning a few changes, and without getting ahead of the grand announcement I’m sure Alexandra (TXP Magazine Publishing Manager), would like to make herself, I think mag readers will be pleasantly surprised.

Aside from that, if you visit TXP Mag on occasion, you’ll know they do book reviews, and that is one of the article genres I contribute too. In fact, Friends of Ed (an Apress company) fancied my review for Web Accessibility enough to request quoting it at their own site. (I’m glad they found value in my review; it is truly a great book.)

Anyway, as there are several contributing authors of book reviews at the mag, deciding who is going to be doing what book review can be a bit of a challenge. After all, there are some books that everybody would like to get their eyes on. When it comes down to it, there’s more interest in doing reviews then there are opportunities when several authors are involved.

In an attempt to leverage things bit more strategically for everyone involved, I have decided to start doing independent book reviews here at wion.com as well. I’ll keep doing reviews for TXP Magazine as long as I’m on deck there, and any review I do there will not be published here too (and visa versa), but other books will be fair play.

It is my intention to give robust accounts of any book I review, and as such I provide the bad (if I think there is any) with the good. Hopefully you’ll find my reviews insightful. Stay tuned.

Edits (14 January 2007):

  1. My time at TXP Magazine has come to end, in fact within days of this article initially being posted. Apparently one is not allowed to pursue interests of their own if they already look out for the mag’s, and while that mentality might work in the corporate world, it does not work in the free-wheeling market. So an amicable separation has passed and everyone is happier for it.
  2. By the mere chance of dropping by Bruce Lawson’s personal Web site (which I do from time to time via RSS), I happened to notice that he noticed my review, and low-and-behold, my review was published on Bruce’s birthday. As I told him already, happy belated birthday, Bruce. I had no idea, but there you go.

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