Writing the ‘Quintessential’ Book Review: ‘An Irresistible Story’ of Googling

May 29, 2008 | 3 books mentioned 4 2 min read

Book reviews are not the easiest things to write in the world. No, this is not an “oh, me, book blogging is so hard” piece. Though, judging from the New York Times Magazine‘s cover story of Emily Gould last week, that may be appropriate, too. I digress.

The books I read motivate me. If I am moved by one, I am compelled to write and talk about it, making sure I entice as many people as possible to check it out and share the experience. And, vice versa for books I dislike. It is tricky, however, to keep your audience interested without giving away the whole book.

I became very self conscious about my book reviews during journalism school. (Hence, the lack of my verbose dispatches of old.) Picking the right words to describe a style, characters, the story flow and experience proved harder and harder. Escaping cliches, in other words, became more difficult. And that brings me to today’s theme. (This is called burying the lede in journalism.)

Reading about some new releases last week, I noticed recurring themes and started to Google them. The results were entertaining – or, from a creativity point of view, dismal. My methodology is to pick a phrase and put it in quotes (e.g., “lively cast of characters”) and add the word “novel” next to it (as in: “lively cast of characters” novel).

Here are some phrases and searches I found to be especially intriguing and entertaining:

Another test you can run is breaking up and joining phrases:

Yet, there is hope, dear Millions readers:

Google away and enjoy the folly. And, by all means, please speak loudly when we “fall into the same trap” here at the Millions.

breathes, eats, drinks, sleeps, reads, writes and works in New York. He also reports Live from Gybria. To maintain his sanity, Emre looks for stories in daily life and books. Should that fail, he orders Chinese food and watches the mind-numbing box.