Aeon Skoble, editor of and contributor to several of those Your-Favorite-TV-Show-and-Philosophy books, jumps into the fray in the comments to this Crooked Timber post to defend their value. Others are skeptical. My own take: Great idea in principle, for many of the reasons Skoble mentions. But, on the basis of the ones I’ve looked at, disappointingly lackluster execution. That the books sold well (which Skoble keeps mentioning) proves that lots of other people thought the idea sounded cool, not that the actual essays were generally very good once they got the book home.