Nan Talese Hatching Plans for Book Review Site

Would more young people buy books if it were easier to find brief, pithy book reviews online? Nan Talese thinks so.

At the Lapham's Quarterly party last night, Talese, a senior vice president at Doubleday and the publisher/editorial director of her own imprint there, told me she is in the early stages of starting a criticism website, The Review, aimed at youthful readers.

The site would feature 20 to 25 reviews a week of 800 words or less. "I think the best book reviews are the ones in People magazine and Entertainment Weekly," she says.

Her choice to oversee the reviews is Bookforum editor Eric Banks: "We had several false starts, but I believe he is now willing to do it full time and is putting together a financial plan."

Rather than rely on advertising, she hopes publishers themselves will be willing to fund the site. "It is in their interest to get the news of books abroad, especially to a younger generation that does not read newspapers, whose book coverage is shrinking anyway," she says.