I've noticed a trend in paperback books that I really don't like

[thewayne]

On the inside cover splash page, all you're getting is sycophantic praise from reviewers of the author's previous books. No chapter excerpt, just a short bit from some review. So you're left with the back cover, and that frequently has one or two reviewer's blipverts there, too. This particularly sucks if it's an author that you are not familiar with. So do you read a reviewer who is head over heels in love with a previous, possibly unrelated, book? Do you open to the beginning and start reading?

Oh, and then you have the authors who rate two or three pages of praise! Why not have a page for an excerpt, THEN have a page or two of suckup?

It bugs me.

Comments

[apostate-96.livejournal.com]

I've sometimes seen what you're talking about, and it's an instant turn-off for me for buying a book. It makes me wonder if the book itself is so bad they can't find anything out of it to either quote or summarize to entice the potential reader/buyer. Instead, it makes it look like they've gone to the length of coming up with statements from a bunch of people I don't know and/or haven't heard of saying it's great. To me, that's got about the same degree of credibility as a guy standing in an alleyway saying "Got some good shit here, man, wanna buy some? Get you REAL high...."

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

LOL! Yeah, that's about what it feels like. :-)

[apostate-96.livejournal.com]

"Flip a few pages of this. Mess you UP, Jack! My homie, Wingnut, he cain't get 'nuff of it, sell his own mamma for some!!!"