London Review of Books
Ranked 9 of 11 magazines by recommenders
Recommended for long, erudite articles by domain experts that are consistently high quality; some find it increasingly politicised.
Recommended for long, erudite articles by domain experts that are consistently high quality; some find it increasingly politicised.
8 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 7
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 88%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 7 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 7 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 5 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Erudite longform by domain experts
“I found the LA Review of Books and the London Review of Books to be helpful examples of longform, erudite writing”
Comment from 3 Feb 2026 in “Deno Sandbox” “frequently has domain experts writing their reviews”
Comment from 14 Feb 2026 in “Ars Technica makes up quotes from Matplotlib maintainer; pulls story” Consistently high-quality articles
“The articles are uniformly fantastic, though obviously not uniformly interesting to everyone.”
Comment from 17 Mar 2026 in “Heart, Head, Life, Fate” “The article here is outstanding.”
Comment from 2 Jun 2026 in “Squillions – two books about money-laundering”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Seen as politicised
“Half the LRB feels so politicised to me now, and the other half barely feels erudite.”
Comment from 17 Mar 2026 in “Heart, Head, Life, Fate” “it was infected with the politics virus years ago”
Comment from 26 Dec 2025 in “The entire New Yorker Archive Is Now Fully Digitized”
Other magazines people recommend
The four most recommended other magazines, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Byte magazine | 49 | 4 | 92% | 8 | 40 yrs4 owners | Approved |
| Paged Out | 46 | 7 | 87% | 6 | — | Approved |
| The New Yorker | 26 | 10 | 72% | 10 | — | Approved |
| Dr. Dobb's Journal | 14 | 1 | 93% | 4 | — | Approved |
| London Review of BooksThis page | 7 | 1 | 88% | 5 | — | — |
What people said
All 9 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“The article here is outstanding.”
“because they actually care”
“Tons of fascinating detail.”
“All pretty decent publications, and I only canceled the latter two to save a little money.”
“Half the LRB feels so politicised to me now, and the other half barely feels erudite.”
“The articles are uniformly fantastic, though obviously not uniformly interesting to everyone.”
“frequently has domain experts writing their reviews”
“I found the LA Review of Books and the London Review of Books to be helpful examples of longform, erudite writing”
“it was infected with the politics virus years ago”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.