Thursday, October 4, 2012

Miki isn't kidding when she says "If you love to read and love to laugh, please give 'Judging a Book by Its Lover' a chance."


Want to impress the hot stranger at the bar who asks for your take on "Infinite Jest"? Dying to shut up the blowhard in front of you who's pontificating on Cormac McCarthy's "recurring road narratives"? Having difficulty keeping Francine Prose and Annie Proulx straight?

For all those overwhelmed readers who need to get a firm grip on the relentless onslaught of must-read books to stay on top of the inevitable conversations that swirl around them, Lauren Leto's Judging a Book by Its Lover is manna from literary heaven A hilarious send-up of--and inspired homage to--the passionate and peculiar world of book culture, this guide to literary debate leaves no reader or author unscathed, at once adoring and skewering everyone from Jonathan Franzen to Ayn Rand to Dostoyevsky and the people who read them.

Miki says:
"For anybody truly obsessed with reading, it is always a wonderful experience to meet someone who shares your views on favorite writers, literary dreamlands, and fictional boyfriend material. To find this book bestie is a rare phenomenon, but it does happen.  I know this, because I think I met mine. 
 

Although she is totally unaware of this, Lauren Leto is my new BFF.  Not only did she charm me with her hilarious dating tips and book store pick up lines, but her vast and varied knowledge of the literary world really wowed me too.  I thought I was the only person equally obsessed with Eugenides and Harry Potter.  Apparently not.  In fact, Leto devotes an entire section of the book to each of them. 
 

Leto found a way to really discuss literature with humor and snark without dumbing anything down.  Even as a book seller, she puts my reading list to shame, yet she is totally honest about her lack of desire to read the "book that must be read by all". She is not afraid to admit what many of us have thought about deeply literary book of the year that we just couldn't get or the next big romantic thriller that we can't believe is so popular. 
 

If you love to read and love to laugh, please give Judging a Book by Its Lover a chance. This book is fantastic for any book lover. I recommend giving a copy to a fellow book nerd as you read because there are so many parts that make you laugh out loud and want to jump up and share.  I couldn't go near another book seller without reading a passage or repeating a line from one of the sections."

1 comment:

Unknown said...

This sounds wonderful. I hope there is some in stock at the Colfax store!