You call that a sense of humor? :)
Think of it as a meta-review, the kind of thing people use all the time
to assess the world more efficiently, sometimes (yes) at the cost of
accuracy.
But look at what I wrote. A guy at the company selling the product being
discussed in the book says nothing good about the book. What does that
tell you? Honestly, what does that tell you? You have to understand he
was straining to say the best he could, and he said the book "balances".
And the author could not find anyone to say anything nicer. Good lord.
Mind you, I may have an advantage on you. I read a funny column once by
a successful writer on how they dealt with requests from other authors
for such blurbs. The writer hated to turn them down so some prose
gymnastics resulted.
Somewhat off-tangent, I read another funny column about how to write a
bad review meticulously such that it did not have a sentence or even
phrase that could be taken out of context and splayed across an
advertisement in 144-point type.
Which reminds me of the gold standard I cited, the back cover of this:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0688112730/ref=sib_dp_ptu#reader-link
Larry wrote a lot of other books and for one he asked an old ballplayer
for a quote. The guy was more than willing but shy and said he would not
know what to say so they had a little fun and Larry wrote it for him:
"This is about the best book I have read, and I don't read much."
:)
kenny
