Sunday, April 13, 2008

Sure Fire Way to Tell If a Novel is Worth Reading...

One of the best ways to tell whether or not a book is worth reading is to check the size of the author's name on the front cover. If the author's name is bigger than the title, the novel is not worth reading. Occasionally, I discover exceptions...but they are almost as rare as a good Disney Channel recording artist.

Here's an example. This is a current best-seller. I have never read it, but since the author's name is significantly larger than the title it has to be lame.


I apologize to any Harlan Coben fans out there. I recommend writing Mr. Coben's publishers about decreasing the size of his name on the covers of his novels. Doing so, I imagine, would likely increase the literary value of his writing.

2 comments:

  1. I think it also explains how big the author's ego is.
    For a full history of the growing ego of Mr. Coben check out:
    http://www.harlancoben.com/static/novels/

    * Notice the novels that actually won awards have small names and a large titles.

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  2. Interesting. I have never really noticed. But I took a look at some of our books. What about when the title of the book and the authors name are the same size? (Dad's Tom Clancy books are that way....)

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