5 ms·
I’m always astonished by those blurbs on books in English. I’m currently reading "The science of story telling" by Will Storr. There are 5 blurbs on the cover,
by ploum 4y ago
I’m always astonished by those blurbs on books in English.
I’m currently reading "The science of story telling" by Will Storr. There are 5 blurbs on the cover, one on the back cover. The book open with 3 full pages containing 18 blurbs.
That’s completely ridiculous. It really deserves the book. It makes it look silly and unconfident.
For French book, it is quite rare. When it happens, it’s a red paper above the cover that you can remove after buying the book.
Is that an American thing?
- JohnFen 4y agoHonestly, I don't know. I've developed "blurb blindness", like "ad blindness", and they just don't register in my mind. I like that because, like ads (not surprising since blurbs are ads), blurbs are without value to me.
- wodenokoto 4y agoNo, that’s a French thing.
- ghaff 4y agoThat's a lot. But blurbs are pretty common in US books, probably especially non-fiction. A quick glance through some books on my coffee table shows multiple blurbs on the back cover are common, maybe something short and pithy on the front cover, and maybe a page of blurbs when you open up the book.
- kgwgk 4y ago> It really __deserves__ the book. Maybe you meant to say disservices?
- okvdjv 4y ago[flagged]
- goldfeld 4y agoI think it's cool and understandable as a sign of reciprocity.. if the book deserves the blurbs then really the blurbs deserve the book they're stuck with. Of course there is not always reciprocity, but apparently aye in this case.
- kgwgk 4y agoI suspect that the use of "deserve" was just the result of a bad translation. https://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais/desservir/ https://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais/desservir/
- ploum 4y agosorry, I was confused by a French similar word. The intended meaning was "to harm"
- bravura 4y ago*disserves
- bobthepanda 4y agoThat makes sense but for some reason in my eyes it seems weird as a verb; the noun “disservice” is more common, or saying something is “doing a disservice to” something
- xhevahir 4y agoBeing American, I've been put off by the French (or maybe just Gallimard's?) way of doing things, which is to put the author's name in very bold print on the front, and on the back a short passage from the book which may or may not be representative of the book as a whole. Am I supposed to infer from the style of those few sentences whether the book is going to be good? Because as a non-native reader of French I don't feel competent to do that. (And I doubt that many readers can.) And all those cream or off-white covers! Don't get me started. Having said that, the last American book I bought after studying the blurb and the award medallion was bad enough that I didn't finish reading it.
- JohnFen 4y agoHow is that any different from US books?
- ploum 4y agoFunny. I find the short passage more telling than "Awesome, a masterpiece (John Doe)". But the short passage is rare and more "litterary". Usually, it’s a summary of the book (often written by the author himself/herself). Summary is, IMHO, the best way to judge a book. The worst being a summary that spoils the book (yeah, it happens…).
- gumby 4y agoSince so many French (and not just French) books are sold shrink-wrapped, the only way to get any idea of the book's style is either the except from the text on the back or from the author (as in you already like X's writing). You must literally judge a book by its cover. Quite a few bookshops discourage you from opening the wrapper, especially, I find, in Germany for some reason.
- Scubabear68 4y agoWhy on Earth are they shrink wrapped? In a Barnes and Noble store in the US it is not unheard of for people to pick a book off a shelf in the store, sit in a comfy chair or in the cafe, read for awhile, and then put it back when they are done. I did this quite a bit when I was dead broke many years ago.