sick of hearing the same words used over and over in reviews? here’s a compilation of Bob Harris’ pet peeves with blog comments providing additional fodder. anything to add?
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5 responses so far ↓
Jim McCluskey // March 27, 2008 at 7:52 am
Eponymous, any review that has me reaching for my dictionary has immediately lost any chance of getting me to read the book.
David // March 27, 2008 at 12:23 pm
Whew! Haven’t used any of those that I remember. My peeve? “Page-turner” — isn’t that pretty much how you read ANY book??
Kathleen // March 29, 2008 at 9:17 am
I’m so glad the list includes “lyrical,” which is (as far as I can tell) code for “teens won’t read this unless you force them, and maybe not even then.”
Jim McCluskey // March 29, 2008 at 11:38 am
Also add, ‘inspirational’, and ‘life affirming’ to the list, I’d rather plunge needles into my eyes than read that dreck. In fact, wouldn’t it be refreshing to see the word dreck appear more often in reviews.
In this life affirming and inspirational first novel the prose is almost lyrical–thankfully though this reviewer was able to put this dreck aside after page 3.
David // April 1, 2008 at 4:16 pm
Ha! Way ahead of you, Jim — see my review of “Rock Instrumental Classics” on our “What We’re Listening To” page!