(no subject)
So, I was in Borders today again (FUCKING COUPONS), and I saw something. And it made me think.
Have any of you guys ever seen a more mediocre, passive-aggressive adjective than "readable"? I see readable applied to a book, and I can't help but think of something dreadfully middling, average to the nth degree. It's like if you ask someone how their meal is at a restaurant, and they sort of nod their head and contemplate their dish before saying, "Edible." You can eat it, but it's not exactly good. Likewise, you can read a "readable" book, but it's not like it's going to win the Pulitzer or anything.
Even if you add an adverb on to it (like today, this book was described as compulsively readable) it just feels like the reviewer was rubbing salt into the wound. Like, if you buy this book, you're going to read part of it, realize it's just barely okay, and put it down, but find yourself at odd times thereafter craving mediocrity, such that you will bemoan the fact that you left this book at home while you go away for a long weekend.
These are the sorts of things I overthinkthink about.
Have any of you guys ever seen a more mediocre, passive-aggressive adjective than "readable"? I see readable applied to a book, and I can't help but think of something dreadfully middling, average to the nth degree. It's like if you ask someone how their meal is at a restaurant, and they sort of nod their head and contemplate their dish before saying, "Edible." You can eat it, but it's not exactly good. Likewise, you can read a "readable" book, but it's not like it's going to win the Pulitzer or anything.
Even if you add an adverb on to it (like today, this book was described as compulsively readable) it just feels like the reviewer was rubbing salt into the wound. Like, if you buy this book, you're going to read part of it, realize it's just barely okay, and put it down, but find yourself at odd times thereafter craving mediocrity, such that you will bemoan the fact that you left this book at home while you go away for a long weekend.
These are the sorts of things I overthinkthink about.