What I notice about the three preceding reviews is that they're frackin' long pieces, and the reader's spirits may understandably sink when reading through, say the first umpteen paragraphs of my review of The Wrestler and realising that that's only the first part. The long review essay may not look out of place in the New York Review of Books (and the Wrestler review was a deliberate attempt to try writing an essay in that style), but when your reading medium is a bright light source that you read by scrolling down the page, you will probably find yourself praying for brevity when you encounter a piece of that duration.
Therefore, the next three entries on this blog will still be reviews, but shorter reviews. They were written under the aegis of the bookshop where I work, to be entered on the new store web site as book, CD and DVD recommendations for customers. They're a bit breathlessly enthusiastic, but I'm afraid that can't be helped given their mercantile intent. I include them above partly to show that I am capable of writing a shorter review if I have to (and that therefore, of course, when I write a longer piece it's because I have my reasons), and partly because I imagine that some of you actually might like to read something I've written that won't require blocking time out of your diaries.
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