It is with regret and nostalgia that we have decided to stop reviewing books. The reasons are complicated but unavoidable. Book Watch will continue to bring new titles to your attention, but full reviews are now deprecated.

When I Programmer launched back in 2010 we published a book review a day which was mainly possible because of a backlog of reviews that had been created for the UK publication, Visual Studio Journal. After a while, the number was reduced to two a week and recently down to one every two weeks. The reasons for the decline were mainly the difficulties in obtaining books to review and in the very obvious downward spiral of quality. We had gone from publishing many positive reviews of well written "essential" books to many negative reviews of books that were mostly surplus to requirements.

Of course, most of the blame for this sits squarely on the evolution of the web. Who needs a good book when you have Stack Overflow? The real answer is just about everyone, but the problem was increasingly finding new good books. Even O'Reilly, that publisher of niche high tech books, more-or-less threw in the towel, even if they didn't publicise it. Things are only set to get worse for book publishers due to AI - why read a book for yourself when you can get a summary in a matter of seconds?

The sad fact is that it is too easy for publishers to accept a book. In fact, it is easier to say yes to a book proposal than to say no. Publishing risks in these days of print-on-demand are so low that the function of "gatekeeper" is no longer something publishers have to fulfill. Hence, with some exceptions, the dross floods out the good stuff. When was the last time you greeted a new book on with delight and enthusiasm and how many times have you been disappointed?

Human nature being what it is we mostly tried to find some good in every book reviewed but with increasing difficulty given that to do service to book buyers it is important to tell the truth. Negative reviews are much harder to write than positive ones - you have to put in just as much work reading the book and without the reward you get from a good book that you can wholeheartedly recommend.  In addition, who wants to be negative when it is too late to provide constructive criticism.

These are the reasons why reviewing technical books is no longer a rewarding occupation. Add to this the fact that it became increasingly difficult from a management point of view. Actually getting books for review proved harder and harder mainly due to publishers not being used to receiving review requests any more, and the increasing attitude that "we don't need special reviews we get all we need on Amazon". That fact that many Amazon reviews are clearly untrustworthy seems not to matter. Amazon also refuses point blank to post reviews that have appeared on another website, a policy we have tried in vain to alter. 

More cartoon fun at xkcd a webcomic of romance,sarcasm, math, and language

So reluctantly we have decided to stop reviewing books on a regular basis. We might still feature a book review if it is appropriate and we will to keep the backlist of Book Reviews, almost 2,000 of them, we have reviewed online. We'll also keep our Programmer's Bookshelf articles up to date. And while books continue to be published so will Bookwatch, which has details of more than three thousand titles. But as far as book reviews go they will be the exception to the rule.

As book reviews editor I would like to thank the publishers who have continued to support us, especially Microsoft Press, Manning, Pearson, No Starch Press, In Easy Steps and Wiley.

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