In this year's reflective spirit, we looked for patterns in Gesher's previous book reviews. Most issues have reviewed 3–5 books, for a total of 50 reviews over 13 editions. Most reviews have been between one and two pages long, although twice we also gave lists of books with brief descriptions. Gesher 2004 departed from the established pattern in having more – but mainly shorter – reviews than usual.

Most books have had more than one theme. However, when categorised by their main focus, books about the Holocaust (including biographies and autobiographies) form the largest group (11), with antisemitism being the major focus of another four. Together these made up 30% of reviews.

Books about the 'early church' or people and events early in the Common Era were next most frequently reviewed (20%). Another almost 20% directly addressed 'interfaith relations', mainly relations between Judaism and Christianity but sometimes other faith traditions.

A slightly smaller number of books focused on religion more generally (e.g. The Cambridge Illustrated History of Religions). Three books were specifically about Israel or Palestine, and a few were about Judaism or Jews in Australia. Finally, several reviews fell into the 'miscellaneous' category, for example, reviews of a video and an 'ecumenical and interdisciplinary' journal. Overall, a good 60% of books had an historical theme, while 40% addressed theological topics. Some had both. Perhaps unsurprisingly, no novels were reviewed. Most books were published overseas – usually in the US or the UK. However, over one–fifth were local products.

Most reviewers were members of CCJ, with reprints from other publications used only three times. Our reviewers came in roughly equal proportions from a Christian or a Jewish background. Sam Moshinsky has been our most prolific reviewer (eight reviews), with Howard Nathan and Gad Ben–Meir coming in a respectable second with four reviews each.