Monday, March 3, 2014

Why I Don't Read the Inside Flap of books

Right now I'm reading the book The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway for one of my book clubs.

At two chapters in I can tell you it involves truckers, a world existing in the aftermath of something called "The Go-Away War" and is sort of like Earth (many of the same cities, movies and cultural concepts are there) but clearly is not our Earth.

I have to admit, after I finished the second chapter and was still unable to say where in the world this story was taking place a part of me wanted to read the inside flap of the dust-cover, you know the bit that gives you a brief plot summary to help you decide to purchase/read the book?

But here's my problem - I'm reading the book already, do I really need to know exactly what the overall story is about or should I just trust the author to take me to some interesting places with some interesting characters.  As of yet I haven't read any summary or review of the book and honestly I don't think I will either before I finish it.

Looking back at all the books I've read in the last couple years I realize that I really don't tend to read the inside flaps (or brief plot outlines online) anymore - I trust the authors I like and as many of my books are either based on recommendations from friends or come off of lists of "best 100 books" I tend to trust that whatever the story is about it's probably worth my time.

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