The dark side of blurbs.

I'm going through something similar right now, actually. It makes me question several blurbs and reviews that I've seen of the book. The author is a really nice guy, but so far the book hasn't been anything like what the other people seemed to indicate it would be. It's depressing, and makes me wonder if the authors who blurbed or reviewed it are regretting it now.

I never pay attention to author blurbs. I just a book on its summary - if the STORY sounds like it may appeal to me, I'll give it a go. Because even if [insert names here] like it, that's no guarantee that I will. Or maybe I'm just contrary that way ;-)

Yup

Er.... The ONLY time I bought a book based on a blurb, it was one of those books where the heroine is too stupid to live.

Usually I ignore blurbs entirely and just look at the plot synopsis for a reason.

Yes, though rarely, and rather than blurbs, more often it's the blog/website reviews that get me.

There is one author whose work I love obsessively and preorder on sight, but I cannot read anything that is recommended by this person, even if it looks (plot description, summary, cover) like something I would love, because our tastes in prose that we enjoy reading are violently opposed. I've tried with three books and several short stories and every time I have experienced MEH to AAARRGGGHHHHHHH as a result of reading the recommended story. I still adore the writer's own work, but I cannot trust that I will enjoy something they like, no matter how appealing their rec looks.

Most of the time I tend to go on gut instinct or referrals from certain friends whose tastes align well with mine.

I've gotten the distinct impression that there are people out there who blurb their friends' books because well ... it's hard to say no. Or they have the same agent, or whatever. So I don't pay attention to blurbs.

Oddly, though, if I'm reading an author's blog and they gush over the work of someone who as far as I know is not an SO or particularly close friend? That's enough to get me to read something. (Though not, generally, to buy it sight unseen, especially if it's a hardcover. Library, here I come!)

So since the book didn't murder my puppies, I will not name it.

Wait... you have puppies? Did I miss an episode????

I rarely pay attention to blurbs. They might pique my interest "huh - did I just see Seanan's name there?" (though to be fair, the font of the title often piques my interest to that same degree), or confirm my decision "Ooh, I'm looking forward to reading this book. AND Seanan blurbed it? Hot diggity!" - but I'd never buy it just for a blurb.

I generally ignore the blurbs and look at the back cover summary to see if it interests me (assuming this is not a book that my daughter has plunked down on my desk and said "READ THIS NOW!", or something that sounded really interesting in a Smart Bitches review or a Whatever "Big Idea" feature.)

If there is no real summary and *just* review and author blurbs, I assume it's some popular best-seller dreck that everyone is already supposed to have heard about, and drop it like a hot rock.

Sometimes we go by contraries. If my bridesmaid dislikes a movie, she can be wrong, but if she likes one, I generally will too.

I've never had that happen to me, mostly because the things that make me intensely dislike a book are not the province of blurbs, and in any case only works in the negative, which is to say I can sometimes figure out that I won't like the book, generally from the summary but theoretically from the blurb, but reading good things in blurb or summary are like calm water in an Australian river: saying absolutely nothing about the presence or absence of crocodiles.

Given that neither blurbs nor summaries tend to warn me "this book will feature Suitor #2 repeatedly pressuring the heroine for sex" or "this book's villain gets a lovingly detailed rape/torture scene just to establish that he's evil" or "this book will rip your heart out with your lungs still attached to it via the death of your favorite character," I just have to risk it. Sometimes it's worth it, sometimes it isn't; sometimes I spend forever after uncharitably inclined toward that author, sometimes I read other things of theirs more carefully, sometimes I drop the book into the Donate pile midsentence, sometimes I Mythbuster* my own revision of the scene into my head-canon for it and keep reading.

But no, I only pay attention to the blurbs if they're descriptive, and then I take them at face value. I gave one a try based on a description of "police procedural/hilarious/excellent worldbuilding" or words to that effect---since I love all three of those things, it overcame my reservations about the summary's talk of murdered children. The series is one of my all-time favorites.

*reject your reality and substitute my own.

It's happened so often, that I no longer read the blurbs. I honestly don't think it's an issue of authors claiming a book is great when it isn't, but my own thick headed silliness. I finally figured out that I was hoping the blurb implied the book was just like the work of the blurber (is that a word?). And, of course, it can't be.

Book purchasing has become so expensive for me, that I have to have some kind of vetting system, though. Usually I go to Amazon, read all the reviews, and try to get a sense of whether or not I'm going to like it. Then I go to the author's blog (if he or she has one) and read some of their posts. Finally I facebook a question to friends asking if any of them have read the book and like it. I wish that our local library had a better selection, or that I would win the lottery. Barring that, I have to be pretty picky about which authors I'll purchase; in fact, I'm down to four that I purchase the day they publish (McGuire, Andrews, Briggs, and Gay) and after that I may take a chance of two or three authors in a year.