New York Times writer Martin Arnold has written his final “Making Books” column. Blasted a few years ago by Salon for not having his finger on the pulse of the industry, Arnold wraps up his five years on the column with a few statements on the state of the world of publishing and his hopes for its future. And his final words are meant to ring in the ears of his many critics. He quotes Emerson: “Tis the good reader that makes the good book;…in every book he finds passages which seem confidences or asides hidden from all else and unmistakably meant for his ear” and then states: “this column has not been for the few hundred in the publishing industry — who often haven’t liked it — but for that good reader. I know a woman, who happens to be a writer, who always carries a book with her wherever she goes. This column was written for readers like her.”