Series: Stand alonePublisher: Harper Perennial
Publication Date: 10/2/12
Format: Paperback
Pages: 269
Source: Received from publisher for review.
Lauren Leto, humor blogger and co-author of Texts from Last Night, now offers a fascinating field guide to the hearts and minds of readers everywhere. Judging a Book by Its Lover is like a literary Sh*t My Dad Says--an unrelentingly witty and delightfully irreverent guide to the intricate world of passionate literary debate, at once skewering and celebrating great writers, from Dostoevsky to Ayn Rand to Jonathan Franzen, and all the people who read them. This provocative, smart, and addictively funny tome arose out of Leto's popular "book porn" blog posts, and it will delight and outrage literature fans, readers of Stuff White People Like and I Judge You When You Use Poor Grammar--people obsessed with literary culture and people fed up with literary culture--in equal measure.
Judging A Book By Its Lover is your one-stop shop for all topics regarding books and the people who love them. Author Lauren Leto offers snarky, usually spot-on, sometimes condescending and always funny observations on a wide-range of topics, including:
- Bookshelf of the Vanities - bookshelf presentations & the people behind them.
- Ten Rules for Bookstore Hookups
- Rules of Book Club - ohhh, this was so snarky and she nailed it.
- Fan Letter - snarky pleas to fans of writers such as Ayn Rand -YES!, Proust, and Vonnegut.
- Your Moveable Feast - an imaginary scenario of a meal with Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald, among others.
- How to Write Like Any Author - so snarky, and funny.
- What Your Child Will Grow Up to Be.... - based on their favorite book, I think my kids will be okay.
- Stereotyping People By Their Favorite Author - this section was very hit or miss, more miss in my opinion. Funny, though.
- How to Fake It - a guide to faking your way through discussion of some of the most prolific books
- A Gift Guide...-a guide to gift-giving for the important people in your life. I now know what to give my mother-in-law for Christmas. Hooray.
- Twitter-Sized Reviews of Memoirs - funny, snarky tweets that review memoirs
- Book Critic's Bag of Tricks - Watch out guys.This gave me tons of new, pretentious words for my reviews.
- How to Succeed in Classifying Fiction - Gah, I still don't get it.
Judging a Book By Its Lover was definitely a fun read for me. And you can bet I will be using it as a personal guide for future bookish judginess.
Favorite Quote:
"Loving young adult novels well past adolescence isn't a sign of stunted maturity or intelligence. The most important thing about reading is not the level of sophistication of the books on your shelf. There is no prerequisite reading regimen for being a bookworm." (pg. 8)
You can purchase Judging a Book at:
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository
Oh how fun is that! Love that quote too especially since I'm a YA readers who's def not.
ReplyDeleteValerie
This sounds like a really fun read! I agree with Val, that quote is perfect. I've seen this one around a few times and really want to pick it up. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteThis sounds so fun!! Love that quote!! Thanks for sharing this. It sounds like a book I should have on my shelf, or actually on my computer desk lol!!
ReplyDeleteThis is different and it sounds really fun.
ReplyDeletePerfect quote!! This sounds like a fun guide!
ReplyDeleteBook Judginess! Sounds like a fun read. ;)
ReplyDeleteHa! I love this title. So clever.
ReplyDeleteBrandi from Blkosiner’s Book Blog
Okay, I was definitely snickering while I read this. As an English major, I can definitely relate to quite a few of the topics listed above! I've dealt with it by completely submersing myself in genre fiction. All my classics were donated to the library. :)
ReplyDeleteI kept seeing this cover pop up on blogs and goodreads - so glad to here it's funny!!
ReplyDeleteYes! I know what to get my mom for Christmas now! This book! Of course I will read it first. ;) It sounds awesome!
ReplyDeleteThis book sounds like a fun, quick read. I'm very interested in Leto's case for print books. Perhaps at some point I'll have time to sneak this one in.
ReplyDelete