Are bloggers permanently changing the landscape of the review?

This is the question posed by a blogger who goes by the name of devi, on a recent post to "bookish," her book review community on livejournal.  

The trigger for her essay was a post I wrote on another Internet writing site.  I had written about my reaction to the first review of Accordion Dreams.  (It was similar to my Red Room blog entry a couple of posts back, on the same subject.)

I loved the review by Mr. Anchovy (a blogger and accordion aficionado).  Including the wacky, slightly edgy opening line with the reference to soft porn :-)    But then I began to worry a little about the tone,  the whole blog culture that leads to an informal and very subjective voice.  Was this a proper review for a book by a middle-aged psychologist, published by a university press?  Or was I just being my stodgy self, in second-guessing?

My eventual conclusion:  This was a fine, enthusiastic review, and one I should be happy to share.  In fact, my publisher included it in their latest  e-mail newsletter. 

An interesting essay and discussion, which you can read in the link above.  It helped me crystallize some of my thoughts about this.  It's a cultural shift, to be sure.  It makes sense that it would be harder for those of us who came of age in an earlier time, pre-computer, pre-email, never mind the recent revolution in user generated content.