Blurbs affect you even if you think they don’t. They’re funny like that.

I’m reading a great cyberpunk novel about biotech and AI right now (biopunk?). Fun book, very enjoyable. On the cover it has a Neal Stephenson blurb: ”Autonomous is to bio and AI what Necromancer was to the internet”

And without even thinking, that’s exactly how I describe the book to anyone who asks. It’s like the Neuromancer of the tech wave that we’re on the cusp of.

I probably would never be able to come up with that on my own. But I thought I did! I literally thought that was my own description until a few days ago I realized it’s the description I see every time I open the book to read another chapter.

And yes it’s a great book. Totally recommend reading.

The disease of blurbs is not that anyone consciously takes them seriously, but the fact that not having them has become a black mark. People are used to chatty book covers. This is just one of the many tools a dying industry uses to keep its unfair advantages.

Maybe if the blurbs are not worth any attention then the book itself and how it's been edited is barely even deserving of that same attention? I'm sure the free classics from gutenberg.org which one can download on a kindle showcase no blurgs.

> I don’t think I’ve ever paid attention to a blurb in my life.

Dan Simmons writes like a hot-rodding angel and I will be disappointed if his tombstone does not say that verbatim.