Have you ever looked at any of those back of the book reviews? You know the ones I’m talking about. “This book was great” – Some Guy, The Book This Guy Wrote. I have a problem with some of these quotes.
I just finished reading “Fever Pitch” by Nick Hornby an interesting autobiographical story about Mr. Hornby’s obsession with english football (soccer). I’m not a big soccer fan so at times the book did drag but I finally made my way through it and at the end I must say I liked it. On the back cover of the 2000 Penquin copy I have there is a blurb by someone named Nicholas Lezard who states “…this is tears-running-down-your-face funny, read-bits-out-load-to-complete-strangers funny, but also highly perceptive and honest about Hornby’s obsession and the state of the game”. I agree with the second point brought up by Mr. Lezard but in general I didn’t think the book was all that funny. I giggled at a couple of points but tears were definitely not running down my face and I didn’t read choice bits to complete strangers. I highly doubt that Nick Hornby wrote this book with the intention of making us cry with laughter.
I don’t know where I was going with this. In closing I would like to say that I doubt many of these back of the book reviewers actually read the books they write blurbs about. The End. 🙂