The Extra Cool Group! (of people Michael is experimenting on) discussion

will you read a book because there is a blurb on it from an author you like?

Blurbs are notoriously inaccurate. It is usually writers trying to get blurbs written on their own book covers, so the praise is inflated and not a true reflection of the book. I usually distrust blurbs; HOWEVER, it DOES affect me as much as I don't like it. If there is a blurb by someone I respect on the back, I will probably give the book a more thorough look. I hate that I do this, but it's true.

I don't really pay attention to the blurbs themselves, just the name of the author providing the blurb. And that only makes me take a closer look at the book.

Now, if they started writing them the way Rothfuss wanted, then I'd pay attention to them.

If I saw “Sanderson’s newest Brobdingnagian epic is sure to please. Look it up, bitches.” as a blurb on a book, I'd buy it right then and there.

Daniel Handler's Adverbs blurb is pretty awesome. If the author knows what their book is about, they should write the blurbs themselves. But to answer the Q: hell yes.

I only buy non-technical books in electronic format. I find them via recommendations here at GR. When I'm at the bookstore, I zoom straight to the magazine rack to pick up the latest 'F1 Magazine' and 'Racecar Engineering', then it's over to computers where I carefully go through any potential purchase to make sure it actually covers the material I need.

In short, I wouldn't notice if they printed blurbs like “This is a really fucking good book. Seriously. Have you read it? No? Go buy it, shitweasel.”

Jasmine wrote: "will you read a book because there is a blurb on it from an author you like?"

I've done so more than once & don't think I've ever been happy with the result. I now try to ignore them. How someone can write to fit me so well & yet suggest books that don't, I don't understand, but that seems to be the case. I have my suspicions that many of the blurbs are done more out of friendship or comraderie.

It depends on who it is. Stephen King is a notorious blurb whore and has less street cred with me than a rapper working with Justin Bieber. Neil Gaiman has blurbed many of my favorites, even if he wasn't ultimately my number one incentive. Peter S. Beagle I trust.

I used to be a blurb believer..

The good: I bought George RR Martin's Game of Thrones because it had *"It's brilliant" - Robert Jordan* on the cover. Jordan was right.

The bad: I read Jeff Vandermeer's City of Saints and Madmen because it had a quote from China Mieville. I think it set up an unrealistic expectation for me that JVM would be as good as China Mieville.

The ugly: I see Neil Gaiman quotes constantly. They're often quite good (ex. his quotes for Gene Wolfe), but I don't trust him. As for Stephen King, I saw his name on the back of Hunger Games and Twilight, but when I took the time to read the original review he'd written, I discovered that his review was far less enthusiastic than the blurb suggested.

So I've more or less gone underground when it comes to blurbs. To be honest, I pay more attention to what my goodreads network suggests.
Ryan

I have never paid attention to quotes about a book by famous authors or reviewers. I find they're usually pretty useless. When I pick up a book, I want to know what it's about, not what selected people thought about it. If I want to know what real readers think, I check the reviews here on GoodReads.

No, I don't care if authors like a book or not.

I hate when ALL you get are those endorsements, and no description of the book. So, great, Stephen King loves it. WHAT'S IT ABOUT???

EXACTLY!

I never buy books because a 'name' likes them, but it amuses me sometimes to see quotes from the Quahog Weekly Recorder (or whatever), that's really scraping the bottom of the barrel.

It depends on how well I know the author. If I know that the author is honest and will not push a book that s/he feels isn't enjoyable, then I will get the book. I usually look at all comments before I purchase a book. I have so many recommendations since coming to Goodreads that I've become pickier in my book choices.

I am indifferent to blurbs, except for rare instances of an author whose work I dislike commenting on a book I am considering. If I notice those types of blurbs, I will not read the book. But I will not read a book simply beause an author I like provided a quote.

I think it is more useful to read an author's recommendations in interviews and stuff. It tends to be more candid and honest. Often those are the books that they really like. For instance, I found out about a book through Cesar Aira, one of my favorite contemporary writers... the interviewer asked him whether there are any books he thought were great but neglected or something and I found the book he recommended and sure enough it was one of my favorite reads this year. Much more reliable than blurbs.

I've been asked to blurb two authors' books, both collections of prose poems, in fact. Both times I readily agreed (i don't get asked often). I learned from that not to agree beforehand; say instead (advice from my former prof): Let me read it first and if I love it, I'll do it. I loved Sean Thomas Dougherty's book, so it was easy to write an endorsement for it. I did not love the other poet's. Oddly, for a book of poems, it seemed unconcerned with language, sound. In any case, I felt I'd already given my word. So I decided to be more descriptive than anything in my blurb, which I did. And I feel okay about that.

[this writer has since died of cancer, which came as a shock to me :( ]

MJ wrote: "Daniel Handler's Adverbs blurb is pretty awesome. If the author knows what their book is about, they should write the blurbs themselves. But to answer the Q: hell yes."

Is that the one that begins "Hello. I'm Daniel Handler, the author of this book." and then goes on to reveal that most authors write their own jacket description and so readers should be more suspicious of descriptions like "A dazzling novelist at the height of his powers"? I love demystification and that blurb is a classic of it.

In addition to Jimmy's comments about interviews being a more reliable source of true recommendations, I find that writing a forward to a new edition can be a somewhat better sign that an author actually cares. I know they get paid to do this, but I'd imagine it to be hard to write a whole forward on a book that you didn't actually have some attachment to.

I agree. and they don't always get paid!
A friend wrote a forward to Samuel Delany's novel that came out with FC2, and he was not paid. At least with independent presses this is often the case.

What Sandi and Jackie the L said - no effect - generally don't even read them, and a book cover full of quotes with no info on the plot tends to tick me off, which then devolves the decision down to whether I like the cover art enough to take a chance on the book. (Usually not enough.)

It's funny, I almost never read blurbs on book covers and when I do I hardly notice who wrote them. I guess I see them like a banner ad or a popup on a website. I did read one on a recent book I read because it was smack dab in the middle of the cover. It was a recommendation of The Girl Who Could Fly, from Stephenie Meyer. I ended up not liking the book.

I found a quote of mine on a book cover once. I was most surprised. It was a quote taken from an interview that was published in a music magazine, so I suppose they thought I had been paid for it once so they didn't need permission.

I disagree with most of my favorite authors about books, but I've learned this through actually paying attention to blurbs. George RR Martin endorsed both Tad Williams and Cherie Priest. Mieville is absolutely in love with H P Lovecraft. And McCarthy...well, McCarthy is too busy pounding away at his 1840's typewriter in some dank New Mexican cave to bother blurbing any books. So, I've learned from experience to ignore author blurbs.

Actually I have to say, well this is a bit weird. I hate almost every book nick hornby writes about in the believer (that's not actually true, I bought a couple and liked them, but the majority are trashy, yup nick hornby reads trash) but I still buy books that he's blurbed, although the content of the blurb matters (I bought one day because of his blurb and loved it) and he has yet to steer me wrong.

On the other hand stephen king blurbs everything, but it also willing to trash books, it's always tough to tell if he can be trusted.

I do like intros though, like gaiman's intro to jonathan strange and mr. norrell.

Sometimes I also will read interviews with the author about the book before I buy it.

I don't pay much attention to the back cover spam. But, I do generally read the inside flaps of a dust jacket and the author's brief bio.

I agree that intros, preferences etc by other authors can be very interesting. A case in point is Walter Cronkite's introduction to an edition of [book"1984].

I usually don't read intros or prefaces until after I finish the book. A lot of times they can build up expectations too much, or affect the way I interpret the book.

yes, best to save the intro. or preface for last. Often they contain spoilers or influnce my reading too much.

Interestingly, I recently read Cordelia's Honor. The author was asked to write a forward of this new omnibus edition of 2 older novels. She said, "No" and wrote an afterward which made a lot more sense.

Jackie "the Librarian" wrote: "So, great, Stephen King loves it. WHAT'S IT ABOUT???"

What J teh L said.

So, no. Blurb anyway. I won't buy unless I can read inside.

Never read the blurbs, head first for the contents page, then the index & biblio if there is one and for the cover illustration credit.

Jasmine wrote: "will you read a book because there is a blurb on it from an author you like?"

I avoid blurbs as they so often give the entire plot away.

I know it is not a book, but it like the movie "The Village", the plot twist was so obvious that I felt frustrated for watching the trailer. I should have just seen that it was a favourite director and went into the movie having never seen a trailer.