Best and worst blurbs on books you are currently reading

[TexasProgresive]

Here's a some from Terry Prachett's Thief of Time.
The worst is from "The Houston Chronicle" and is what must be a corollary of Godwin's Law for literary pundits. Think J.R.R. Tolkien with a sharper, more satiric edge.

Best in medium length by A.S. Bryatt, "Truly original... Discworld is more complicated and satisfactory than Oz... Has the energy of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and the inventiveness of Alice in Wonderland... Brilliant!"

Best that is long by Barbara Mertz, "Trying to summarize the plot of a Pratchett novel is like describing Hamlet as a play about a troubled guy with an Oedipus complex and a murderous uncle. Pratchett isn't Shakespeare - for one thing, he's funnier - but his books are richly textured and far more complex than they appear at first.
...Consider yourself grabbed by the collar, with me shouting, 'You've got to read this book!'"

It appears to me that Bryatt and Mertz actually read the book and The Chronicle did not.

There are other that sound like the wannabe wine snob at a wine tasting or from a boiler plate template.

[hermetic]

1. Here's a book you might like

How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read by Pierre Bayard.

"If civilized people are expected to have read all important works of literature, and thousands more books are published every year, what are we supposed to do in those awkward social situations in which we're forced to talk about books we haven't read? In this delightfully witty, provocative book, a huge hit in France that has drawn huge attention from critics around the world, literature professor and psychoanalyst Bayard argues that it's actually more important to know a book's role in our collective library than its details. Using examples from such writers as Graham Greene, Oscar Wilde, Montaigne, and Umberto Eco, and even the movie Groundhog Day, he describes the many varieties of "non-reading" and the horribly sticky social situations that might confront us, and then offers his advice on what to do. Practical, funny, and thought-provoking, How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read is in the end a love letter to books, offering a whole new perspective on how we read and absorb them."

I read this many years ago and I see my library has it so I just might have to read it again now.

[northoftheborder]

2. Interesting....

I'll never get around to all the books I already know I want to read, much less be familiar with the books others have already read!!! Have to look up this one to work into my list....

[Staph]

3. Barbara Mertz is one of my favorite authors.

She is better known as Barbara Michaels (horror/romance mysteries, okay but not my cup of tea) and Elizabeth Peters. As Peters she wrote funny mysteries, standalones and three different series:

• Amelia Peabody - a Victorian/Edwardian wife of an archaeologist - many of these mysteries take place in Egypt. There are twenty Peabody novels.
  
• Vicky Bliss - a contemporary art history professor and John Smythe, an art thief, who keep getting involved in international crime. There are six Bliss novels, and the last two tie to the Peabody family.
  
• Jacqueline Kirby - a middle-aged librarian and later romance novelist who also seems to attract crime and criminals. There are four Kirby novels.