The joy of book reviews


	The joy of book reviews

mbrandewinder

12-24-2007 2:16 PM

336 views

tags:

writing, publishing, reviews

Add a Comment

Login to Comment. Not a member yet? Sign up

View the Top Clips from December 24, 2007

Embed This Clip In Your Site...

<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://www.clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/2f2762b9-1676-476a-b341-203c54723033/17767852-339B-4977-A787-84F0DEC95EA1/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.elifbatuman.net/2007/12/23/book-reviews-are-they-necessary/" href="http://www.elifbatuman.net/2007/12/23/book-reviews-are-they-necessary/" style="font-size: 11px;">www.elifbatuman.net</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.elifbatuman.net/2007/12/23/book-reviews-are-they-necessary/"><P class="MsoNormal"><O _moz-userdefined=""></O>To me, it is very rare that a review actually makes a book sound enjoyable.<SPAN>  </SPAN>I identify very strongly with the Haruki Murakami character who reflects, on reading the book reviews at breakfast:</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.elifbatuman.net/2007/12/23/book-reviews-are-they-necessary/"><P class="MsoNormal"><SPAN></SPAN>Not one of the books reviewed was something I thought I’d want to read: a novel on ‘the sex life of an old Jewish man, mingling fantasy and reality,’ a historical study of treatments of schizophrenia, a complete exposé of the 1907 Ashio Copper Mine pollution incident.<SPAN>  </SPAN>It’d be a lot more fun to sleep with the captain of a girls’ softball team.  <SPAN>
</SPAN></P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.elifbatuman.net/2007/12/23/book-reviews-are-they-necessary/"><P class="MsoNormal"><O _moz-userdefined=""></O>That passage really conveys the power of the single-phrase summary—a staple of book proposals, book reviews, and all aspects of literary marketing—to make the book sound like a boring guest at a cocktail party. <SPAN></SPAN>(Murakami describes boring guests well, too: “the kind of party [where you have] to be introduced to strangers and listen to them rant for half an hour about how a vegetarian diet cures cancer.”)</P></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/17767852-339B-4977-A787-84F0DEC95EA1/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content8.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

Clipmarks: Home; New Clips; Top Clips; Dashboard

Popular Topics: News; Life; Science; Technology; Entertainment

Get Started: Sign Up; Install Clipping Tool; How Clipping Works; Clip-to-Blog™; ClipSearch

Tools and Resources: FAQ; ClipWeek; Top Clippers; Top Tags; Site Map

About Clipmarks: About Us; Contact; Blog; Copyright; Privacy; EULA

Search Options

Related Clips

More clips from mbrandewinder

Today's Top Clips