GIFs, memes and liveblogs: The controversial new language of book reviewing

Salon has an interesting essay on multimodality in the wild.

I know, I know: To some of you the idea of using a GIF (for the uninitiated: a small, soundless animated image on a repeating loop) in a book review sounds bizarre. But the practice does flourish, if controversially, in some sectors of Goodreads’ universe of book lovers, as well as in blogs and comments threads across the Web. In addition to the integration of GIFs into text reviews, other new reviewing techniques include liveblogging the reading of a book, in which responses are offered at various points before the critic gets to the end, and the back-and-forth dialogue between a reviewer and the people posting comments to her review. Sometimes the reviewer and commenters know each other well, so the comments elicit further explanations and you can see the reviewer’s interpretation evolve or clarify. All of these innovations can be fascinating if you’re interested in how people talk about the experience of reading.

via GIFs, memes and liveblogs: The controversial new language of book reviewing – Salon.com.