New Delhi, Dec. 27 -- It's that time of year again when, as a book critic, I'm expected to compile a list of my favourite reads of 2025. My colleagues and I have done such a roundup, but even as I was going through the exercise, I couldn't help wondering what it means to be a reviewer today, when social media is flooded with reading recommendations from influencers.

Do professional critics-that dwindling tribe paid by media platforms to review books-matter when so much of public taste is curated by algorithms and influencers promoting books for cash or traction? This question feels especially urgent in India, where the market for English language books is much smaller than those in Indian languages, making the role of the reviewer even m...