But Not the Editorial Page

I've recently begun following the book reviews in the Wall Street Journal, and they're quite good. For example, read this review (charmingly titled "Shoe Leather Rhapsody") of Geoff Nicholson's book The Lost Art of Walking. It manages the trick of detailing the contents of the book--including one of those statistics I can't get enough of: "("Of the 70,000 collisions between automobiles and pedestrians in the U.S. each year, Mr. Nicholson notes, fully 15,000 -- "a staggering proportion" -- take place in New York."--while still making me want to read the book itself.

I also recommend this review of Plumes : Ostrich Feathers, Jews, and a Lost World of Global Commerce, a story whose recounting of an early 20th century speculative bubble echoes the WSJ's other coverage at the moment.--David E