I started this collection of book reviews in late 1997 with the following introduction:
Have you ever spent 30 minutes slogging through a New York Times book review only to reach the end and find that you knew the entire plot of the book...but had no idea whether it was any good or not? Don't get me wrong—I love the Sunday New York Times. But I also love a short, to-the-point book review. I've been keeping a list of the books I read, so I thought I'd offer brief assessments of the ones I read in 1997 to whomever is interested. These have proved popular, so I've continued reviewing books as I read them (and as I have time).
Of course, this was before Amazon was widely known outside the geek community (I described it as "a neat online bookstore" in my revised 1998 introduction for those who hadn't heard of it yet), and before Amazon let readers submit reviews to its site. My little standalone reviews are probably unnecessary now, but I've decided to resume updating them nonetheless. I find that writing about books encourages me to read more, and I'm having fun diddling with PHP. The book titles in the individual reviews are linked to the books' listings on Amazon, so you can see what others think as well, if you like.