Lights Out

We had a blackout at the City Paper office this week. It was just one of those freak things. (Pretty sure we paid our bill.)

I was in the middle of writing an e-mail when ... pop. Nothing. The gentle, ever-present hum that we never notice was gone.

That the computers and lights went out wasn't a surprise. The phones were dead, too, because like most modern telephonic equipment without a rotary dial, they run on electricity.

Here's something I didn't know runs on electricity: the water in the bathroom.

Which meant using the bathroom in the dark, then trying to wash your hands with a dwindling supply of water.

Now that was interesting.

When the lights went out, we didn't know how long it would last. At first I stepped into the newsroom and said something stupid like, "OK, folks, break out the pencils and crayons. We've got a paper to put out!"

But as the minutes ticked by, I began to think: Jesus. Are we going to have to put this paper out with pencils and crayons?

The only functioning pieces of equipment on the third floor of 123 Chestnut were our cell phones, and a few intern laptops, with varying degrees of battery life. They wouldn't do us a damn bit of good — not with our wireless knocked out, too.

Some intern made a joke about this being like a Die Hard movie.

One of my editors looked at me and asked, "Hey, think this is an EMP blast?"

I laughed ... then quickly looked outside.

Thankfully, things seemed relatively normal. Looked like it was only our building. But what if we ever did lose power? Like, for weeks or months on end?

Perpetrating journalism would be a little tough.

When the lights went out on Monday, a large portion of the content in this paper was trapped in computer servers. We hadn't printed much of it out — that comes later, during the sign-off stage.

I walked back to my desk, and looked around, and realized that there was literally nothing I could do.

The power came back on about an hour later. Everything hummed back to life.

So what does this have to do with our Summer Book Quarterly?

Books: the only form of popular entertainment you can't take out with an EMP.

OK, seriously now: There's much concern in the publishing community over book reviews, or the growing lack thereof. Just this week the San Diego Union-Tribune announced it would be killing its stand-alone book review section, which is what an increasing number of dailies are doing.

Fewer stand-alone review sections means fewer reviews. Fewer chances to get your book noticed.

Some say that the Net is there to pick up the slack, that there are countless blogs, review sites and lit journals online to spread the good word.

Which is true. I routinely visit places like Bookgasm and Bookslut and GalleyCat (the names, I know, I know) all the time.

But I'm part of the choir; I'm a book nerd. What preachin' publishers want is to catch the attention of readers who aren't necessarily book readers, or maybe only read a handful of books a year. Those people aren't surfing book sites. They're skimming mass media and stop only when something jumps out at them.

This is why I'm glad that book reviews still thrive in the alt-weeklies — including this alt-weekly. I won't lie to you; there was a dark moment last year when we considered pruning back our coverage (which went against my very DNA). But we decided that such a move would run counter to our mission as an arts and entertainment journal. If we can't preserve a home for book reviews, who the hell will?

Especially the kind of reviews you'll find in this BQ, edited by Patrick Rapa. You see, Pat's not just a book nerd. It's worse. He's a short-story nerd. Even keeps a blog (ireadashortstorytoday.com) about them. Freakin' weird, right?

Just try finding a section dedicated to that in your average daily newspaper.

So I hope something jumps out at you in this summer's BQ. There's nothing better, in the doggiest days of the Philadelphia summer, than a good book, a cold beer and a comfortable place to sit.

And when the EMP hits, you can keep on reading.

(Simulcast at www.citypaper.net.)