[HN Gopher] The Case for Never Reading the Book Jacket
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       The Case for Never Reading the Book Jacket
        
       Author : pseudolus
       Score  : 15 points
       Date   : 2023-11-28 21:25 UTC (1 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (thewalrus.ca)
 (TXT) w3m dump (thewalrus.ca)
        
       | jjgreen wrote:
       | French novels quite often have just the first paragraph of the
       | book on the (back) cover, I think that works rather well (and I
       | have bought books by unknown authors on the strength of that).
        
         | jowea wrote:
         | That might indicate if you like the prose, but that only really
         | works if the author makes 100% sure to indicate what's the
         | genre and theme of the novel already on the first paragraph?
        
           | jjgreen wrote:
           | Just my personal view, but I do think that French writers put
           | a lot of effort into the first paragraph (for just that
           | reason I guess).
        
       | bwb wrote:
       | The article makes the point that I also agree with, most people
       | buy books because someone loved it and told them about it with
       | passion.
       | 
       | And then a small number of "book people" actively seek out books
       | like it is an adventure, and then filter the winners out to
       | friends, family, community, and net...
        
       | crthpl wrote:
       | The idiom "Don't judge a book by its cover" applies to many
       | situations, but books are not one of them.
        
         | maxwell wrote:
         | http://www.paulgraham.com/javacover.html#:~:text=book%20by%2...
        
       | lmm wrote:
       | Meh. Many of the greatest works open by explaining themselves in
       | miniature (to the extent that it's probably a named literary
       | technique). If you let your engagement with a work be
       | circumscribed by what you're told about it beforehand, that seems
       | more like a you problem.
        
       | Wowfunhappy wrote:
       | I have had so many books ruined by the summary. They will
       | regularly include details about what happens in even the latter
       | half of the story.
       | 
       | I never read them anymore. It's harder to find books, but at
       | least I don't see literal spoilers.
        
         | climb_stealth wrote:
         | Same. It's also quite a different experience reading a book
         | without having any idea what it is about. Mostly Sci-Fi and
         | Fantasy in my case.
         | 
         | These days I ask my partner to check for other books in a
         | series. Even just trying to look up the sequels online can
         | spoil quite a lot. This may sound like a hassle but it's
         | actually not.
        
         | megmogandog wrote:
         | My personal worst experience of this was Philip K. Dick's _Time
         | out of Joint_ ; since then I only read the blurbs after I'm
         | finished.
        
       | andy99 wrote:
       | I'll usually look when I'm buying the book to see if I might like
       | it. But then I won't look when I actually pick it up go read it.
       | I'm pretty sure summaries on the back are designed to be used
       | that way, to help with selection and then be promptly forgotten
       | to not interfere with reading.
        
       | NoMoreNicksLeft wrote:
       | Maybe it marks me semi-literate, but I've always liked the cover
       | art. I know that it's absolutely unconnected to the work itself,
       | but it shows an effort on the part of the publisher that lately
       | has been sadly lacking, and they're pretty incentivized to hint
       | at the nature of the story in a way that matters to me. They are
       | seeking readers for that kind of fiction, after all.
        
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       (page generated 2023-11-28 23:00 UTC)