Rating The Raters

The Zagat guides are not just for restaurants anymore. The publisher of consumer-based guides is fast diversifying into the wider world of leisure. Zagat last year came out with its first guide to movies. Now this people's-Choice Empire Is Taking On Shopping, Broadway Theater And Even, Later This Year, Music CDs. How do the new books stack up? Here's the notebook survey. (Rated on a scale of 0 to 30)

ZAGAT SURVEY
Movies
17

Rating only the "top" 1,000 films "of all time" (for "acting," "production" and "story"), the book "shortchanges film history"; Fight Club is included — but "where's Sullivan's Travels?"

ZAGAT SURVEY
Shopping
23

This browse through 2,000 Big Apple stores — New York is the first of several promised cities — rated for "merchandise," "presentation" and "service," is "surprisingly complete"

ZAGAT SURVEY
Golf Courses
25

Covering 1,049 public, semiprivate and resort courses, with "informative, no-nonsense" reviews, it is "both obsessive and thorough," and, for serious golfers, "invaluable"

ZAGAT SURVEY
New York Theater
22

With shows changing constantly, it "can't help being outdated quickly," but the area maps, seating charts and restaurant reviews will be "particularly useful" for out-of-towners