One small thrill of reviewing books–in addition to the small thrill of receiving a generally small paycheck–is seeing the publisher use your words to promote a worthy book that you’ve written about favorably. I once grabbed a new paperback off the front table of a store, held it before my wife, and declared, “I wrote that!” She gave me a funny look, wondering why I hadn’t told her before then about authoring a whole volume. So I pointed to the handful of words written in tiny print above the title: “Engrossing! Mesmerizing! Whoopee! — National Review.” Or somesuch. Well, I didn’t quite rate the cover of the new edition of Hondo, the classic Western by Louis L’Amour, but I was happy to see something I’d written in the Wall Street Journal appear near the top of the press release announcing a hardcover line of Louis L’Amour Legacy Editions. “L’Amour is popular for all the right reasons. His books embody heroic virtues that seem to matter now more than ever. … L’Amour falls into the grand tradition of Jack London and Robert Louis Stevenson.” Go here to read the full piece. Go here to buy a new Hondo–something I won’t have to do, because the publisher graciously sent me a copy. That’s perhaps the final small thrill of book reviewing: the free books.