How to ruin a beautiful book-cover

On the other hand...

Today, the average work of literary fiction appears and vanishes from the scene largely unnoticed and unremarked. Even the novelists you may think of as “hyped” are in fact relatively obscure; I’ve got a battalion of perfectly intelligent cousins who have never heard of either Jonathan Franzen or Dave Eggers. Sure, they know who James Patterson is, but they also know he’s no artist. They’ve never read a book because it was praised as a work of genius on the front page of the New York Times Book Review, and they are oblivious to the existence of James Wood.

- Laura Miller, Salon

Two classic comments on (the writings of) Helen DeWitt

Joe has found that if you want to sleep with a woman you have to spend a lot of time talking to her about her interests.

- Joan Acocella, The New Yorker

As any million-dollar litigation lawyer or two-cent literary critic will tell you, the devil is in the details. 

- Jennifer Szalai, New York Times Sunday Book Review

That's showbiz!!!

Insofar as generic judgments are possible, the ghosted autobiography of a show business celebrity is the lowest form of literary life.

- Geoff Dyer, New York Times Book Review

[To wit...]

The brief history of publishing

quixotic — a word derived from one of the first novels licensed to a publisher.

- Joshua Cohen, New York Times Book Review

Non-fiction (cf. 'truth')

The supreme test of nonfiction is that it be interesting irrespective of the reader’s indifference to the subject under discussion.

- Geoff Dyer, New York Times Book Review