Read Me Without Prejudice

The art of writing has a way of eliciting good tidings from discerning and intelligent readers. Everyone—book reviewers, literature teachers and ordinary readers—all have ways of expressing their love for a book, leaving them to devour the pages of such books like a nicely iced birthday cakes. One of such ways of showing much love for a well-crafted book is through blurbs. Book blurbs could come from editors, reviewers, writers and even readers. Regardless of where they spring from, they have come to capture my attention, forcing me to run to them immediately I grab a book before flipping to the first chapter.

Imagine this about Toni Morrison’s Beloved. Staring unflinching into the abyss of slavery, this spellbinding novel transforms history into a story as powerful as Exodus and as intimate as lullaby.  Wouldn’t you rather spend some time appreciating the similes that helped breathe life into this praise before poring over the book? One of my best books of all time, James McBride’s The Color of Water, still holds one of my most admired blurbs. The Color of Water [will] make you proud to be a member of the human race. The first time I read this blurb, I nursed a sensational feeling that a separate award should be designed for blurb writers. If I ever wrote a book, I would wish a blurb writer would exert as much thought-through process into the blurb as I would have into the book. I could have a praise go like: Vivid and poised. This book would make you cringe, laugh and cry. Above all, it would have you place it at arm’s length.

Over the years, disciplining myself to become a better reader has taught me a great lesson. We should never read books to admire the beauty of words and skills alone; otherwise, we would have our laboratory of words built without that of the ideas refined. The theme, which is the central idea of a book, is arguably of immense importance than the cluster of words formed into admiration. Just like a preacher uses a story in a scripture to pass a message to a carefully listening congregation, followed by a resounding halleluiahs and praise Jehovah with one hand placed on the Bible and the other swaying from left to right in the air, writings however graciously written they are, should never fail to pass their messages. Readers, after each chapters, should like the preacher’s congregation, hold the book to their bosoms, grateful for the fact that someone is telling a story they never would have told.

Don’t get me wrong. For what is the beauty of writing without a well-crafted language? Our languages, whether in metaphors or similes, should help advance our work, not just show how gifted we are with words. These days I am becoming too uncomfortable with blurbs, as well. It seems to be the booming business of the writing world and I have this feeling that people are becoming trained blurb writers. Some occupy first-three pages of a book, with the exception of back covers, saying almost the same thing (praising the writer, the styles, the languages). They do this altering the reader’s five senses of judgment—sight, smell, taste, feel and hear. The readers are left prejudiced. The opinion of the writer still lurked in the pages of varying blurb writers’ opinions. In the end, some readers come out of reading a book with mixed feelings: either it’s been over praised or under praised. The readers, therefore, nurse the wishful feelings of making profound decisions not initially clouded by other’s senses. They are left betrayed.

Even though blurb writers are great editors and good writers themselves, the conscious human intellect is sometimes suppressed by the subconscious human intuition. It is therefore not surprising to find hidden in blurbs the sheer personal appraisals of writers, leaving the idea of the books drowned in beautiful lines of personality and gift praises. 

I love blurbs. They are my windows to the world of the unknown. But care should be taking in writing them.  Most readers cast their expectations of a book on them. They should come without helping readers make decisions. They would better be appreciated when they come with suspense, urging the reader to want to know more. When blurbs are carefully written, they become compasses that help navigate the reader to a destination having hanged them with a thin rope of suspense.