QUOTAS IN BOOK REVIEW?

Having for years, out of delightful necessity, twice read every review published in Book Review, I “view with alarm” what is suggested by the last paragraph of T. Bruce Graham’s letter (Aug. 28). I would not care to have Book Review institute a quota system based on whether an author or reviewer is straight or gay, “butch” or “femme,” and on an at best educated guess as to how many Review readers are of this or that inclination.

I have no objection to reading any number of reviews of books by, say, Tom Clancy, Rudyard Kipling, P.D. James or even Robert James Waller. I leave it to Graham not to be confused by the fact P.D. James sometimes wears tweed, English weather being what it is, and sensible shoes.

Any literary publication or writer of reviews whose main aim is to please a presumed majority of readers is bound to ignore individual merit as much as do those who cater to an imagined elite. Were I a writer, I would not care to wait my turn.

FRED SCIFERS, DOWNEY

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So reader T. Bruce Graham believes The Times is doing a disservice to its “readers of average, normal nature” by printing too many reviews of books about the “absurd,” his euphemism for homosexuality. Graham should consider that the major newspaper of the western United States serves a community that encompasses interests broader than his and, if I may presume to speak for that broader community, desires to learn about subjects beyond his limited view of what constitutes average and normal.

If one finds the subject matter of a book review personally unappealing, one is under no obligation to read it in its entirety. To imply that the readership as a whole should be denied access to that which offends one group is the apotheoses of bigotry. Are gay and lesbian writers acceptable only when their work avoids gay-related themes? That The Times would dignify such a complaint by publishing Graham’s letter (and giving it more column space than any other letter) is what I find offensive. Would the editors print objections to too many reviews of books concerning Muslims, Jews or African Americans?

ROBERT J. SWITZER, WEST HOLLYWOOD