Dear Readers,
Along with many other changes in the Sunday Tribune, you will notice a different Books section this week. The most obvious transformations are its size and its more prominent place in the newspaper. But while the section’s format and location have changed, its mission–to be a full, active participant in the intellectual life of this city–has not.
We saw this revamping as an opportunity to act on suggestions readers have made since the last time the Books section was redesigned, in 1997. We have expanded our coverage of paperbacks. With “Symposium,” we look forward to running your letters to us. We will even print a poem once in a while. And our Page 1 “Bookmark” feature will alert you to an event or two we think you might want to attend.
But the reviews and essays about new books remain the heart of our section, and we hope it continues to meet the needs of readers–special people who believe in the life of the mind.
Hazel Rochman, a Chicago editor and Tribune Books section reviewer, once said that reading “makes immigrants of us all. It takes us away from home, but, more important, it finds homes for us everywhere.” We hope that old, as well as new, readers will find a home in our differently sized section and that, like us, you will be enriched and enlightened by the world of books and ideas you find in its pages.
