How Not to Sound Like a Pretentious Twit
Seven Deadly Words of Book Reviewing (link from Bookslut and Morning News.)
Stretching for the fanciful – writing “he crafts or pens” instead of “he writes”; writing “he muses” instead of “he says or thinks” – is a sure tip-off of weak writing.
Harris mentions one of my personal non-favorites, limn, at the end, but he missed brio. It’s a musical term hijacked by the pretentious. I’ve only seen it in book blurbs, never actually IN a book, and I’ve never heard it used in conversation.
While I agree with Harris, I must shamefacedly admit to using his deadly words in reviews on this blog. I am duly chastened.
March 27th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
What a snarky post on the part of the New York Times. The comments are even worse. I don’t care a hoot what the folks at the NYT think about the words I chose for my reviews.
March 27th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
I think he makes a good point that some of these words have become almost jargon–words tossed out to sound good with little thought or substance behind them. The words are so over used they should be used with care, but some are still fitting. I found What the Dead Know had a compelling story–I was compelled to keep reading, and had a hard time putting the book down. I don’t take it so much as a denigration of those of us who use the words in the review as much as a reminder to write simply, and well.