BookBrowse

BookBrowse is an online magazine and website that provides book reviews, author interviews, book previews, and reading guides.[1][2] The magazine is independent of publishers and does not sell books that it reviews.[3] The site offers both free and premium content that is available by subscription.[4]

BookBrowse
Official BookBrowse logo from website
Screenshot of BookBrowse website (May 2015)
OwnerDavina & Paul Morgan-Witts
URLwww.bookbrowse.com
Launched1997

History

BookBrowse was founded by Davina and Paul Morgan-Witts in 1997.[2] The idea for the website came from a trip to a bookstore the same year. The visit to the bookstore was cut short and they decided to look on the internet for book information, finding very little at that time.[2] This brought on the idea to create something that allowed readers to flip through various pages of a book similar to at a bookstore. BookBrowse was launched allowing visitors to view excerpts of books, later evolving into publishing of book reviews.[5]

The website grew in popularity and in 1998 was featured by Yahoo! as its Incredibly Useful Site of the Day.[3] In the early 2000s, it started publishing its own reviews of various books as well as publishing reader reviews. BookBrowse also launched an online magazine that is published twice-monthly, containing reviews, previews, articles, book club recommendations, and author interviews. It also provides a book club section for those seeking advice on starting a book club and finding suitable books to read, as well as book reviews by active book clubs.[6]

The site generates revenue by offering subscription access to premium features outside the content it publishes for free, including offering subscription access for public libraries.[7] One feature of the website is that BookBrowse does not sell books that it reviews.[8] BookBrowse also conducts and publishes author interviews. Published interviews have included Jennifer Egan,[9] Elisabeth Tova Bailey,[10] John Twelve Hawks,[11] and Kathryn Stockett.[12]

In July 2015, BookBrowse published a research report titled Book Clubs in the USA.[13] In February 2019, BookBrowse published a research report titled The Inner Lives of Book Clubs,[14][15] and in November 2020 it published a third [16] in its series of reports titled Book Clubs in Lockdown [17] [18]

Awards and recognition

In 2015 and 2017, BookBrowse received a Modern Library Award from LibraryWorks in recognition of it being a top product in the library industry.[19][20] In 2020 it was awarded Platinum in the Modern Library Awards [21]

See also

References
  1. Long, Sarah (22 October 2002). "Teen Read Week Seeks to Cultivate a Crucial Skill". Daily Herald (via Questia Online Library). Retrieved 3 May 2015.
  2. "Book Site Gives Online Buying That Old Store Feel". Publishers Weekly. 6 January 1999.
  3. "Incredibly Useful Site for 8/25/98". Yahoo!. 25 August 1998.
  4. Novak, Tanya; Teysko, Heather (28 February 2015). "New Product News January/February 2015". Public Libraries Online. Retrieved 3 May 2015.
  5. "Caught in the WEB". Family Circle. 5 January 1999.
  6. "Join the club - the Book Club to Go". The Telegram. 14 September 2013. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 3 May 2015.
  7. "New Product News". Public Libraries. Jan 2015.
  8. Villalon, Oscar (7 March 2000). "Readers Find Their Niches". San Francisco Chronicle.
  9. Donnelly, Elisabeth (5 September 2014). "The Eerie Prescience of Jennifer Egan's Fiction". Flavorwire. Retrieved 3 May 2015.
  10. Haven, Cynthia (1 August 2012). "Authors Daniel Orozco, Elisabeth Tova Bailey win Stanford's 2012 Saroyan Prize for Writing". Stanford News. Retrieved 3 May 2015.
  11. Huff, Steve (10 September 2007). "Who is John Twelve Hawks?". Blogger News Network. Retrieved 3 May 2015.
  12. Hendin, Robert (22 November 2011). "Face the Nation on Sunday: Books & Authors show". CBS News. Retrieved 3 May 2015.
  13. "Shelf Awareness for Tuesday, July 28, 2015". www.shelf-awareness.com. Retrieved 2017-07-20.
  14. "Publishers Weekly Soapbox, May 3, 2019". www.publishersweekly.com. Retrieved Dec 29, 2020.
  15. "Shelf Awareness". www.shelf-awareness.com. Retrieved Dec 29, 2020.
  16. "BookBrowse Research Reports". www.bookbrowse.com. Retrieved Dec 29, 2020.
  17. "Publishers Weekly Soapbox, November 27, 2020". www.publishersweekly.com. Retrieved Dec 29, 2020.
  18. "Shelf Awareness, December 4, 2020". www.shelf-awareness.com. Retrieved Dec 29, 2020.
  19. "2015 Modern Library Awards". Modern Library. Retrieved 3 May 2015.
  20. "MLAIssue17_2". cld.bz. Retrieved 2017-07-20.
  21. "2020 Modern Library Awards" (PDF). www.libraryspot.com. Retrieved Dec 29, 2020.
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