Bye Bye, Bookslut

By Melissa Feldsher in Arts & Entertainment on Apr 29, 2009 4:20PM

Marilyn was right—there is such a thing as the seven year itch. As her acclaimed literary review blog celebrates its seventh year, founder Jessa Crispin is hitting the trail and crossing the pond to Berlin. Crispin assures us the site will remain the same, but we still can’t help feeling like jilted lovers. There just aren’t any other Booksluts out there for us.

Born of boredom while Crispin was working as a fund-raiser for Planned Parenthood in Austin, Texas, her reviews quickly gained a following of 8,000-9,000 unique visitors per day. Hipper than New York Times Book Review, Bookslut created an off-the-cuff dialogue that took literary discussions beyond your mother’s book club. Of her move, Crispin writes, “I think that maybe I treat cities like relationships, and one day I just wake up and realize it's over. I'll tell myself that I'm crazy, that maybe I'm not trying hard enough; after all, people I love very much are here. But no, it's over, and I started looking around for somewhere to move.”

Of course, Bookslut will still leave some of the snark and wit behind in the form of Caroline Erick, who as managing editor will continue Chicago-centric reviews and the Hopleaf reading series.

Auf Wiedersehen, you bookish temptress. [via Gapers Block]