Ongoing ...

... Dear Book Lover: Why Book Critics Matter - WSJ.com. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

A reviewer's job isn't to service writers; it's to advise their readers whether to buy a book—or go to a movie, eat at a restaurant, see new art. Good book critics are exceptionally well read and can put a book not only in the context of the writer's earlier work but also in literary history. They can say if the novel is Dickensian, Rabelaisian, Biblical, Proustian or Shakespearean or none of the above.