Dazed and Amused

Alright, so my plan had been to write to you a while back, Mrs. B. But, you know me, far too ambitious for my own good. I started reading four books all at once, just like I used to, and only just finished one of them last week. You were right -- being an adult means that work gets in the way of awesome things like reading all the books I can consume and writing crazy fiction. The book I've finished so far isn't a bad book (none of them are, just all varying genres and interests), and certainly one I have an interest in talking to you about, but something else had me tickled and I just wanted to pass on my amusement.


So, I picked up another book (that makes only one finished, and four active). This one was a Nora Roberts book and in the last three days I've been making quite a lot of progress reading it. Now, that's not the amusing part. Normally, I'm a big believer on reading back covers, reading flaps, that sort of thing, whenever I pick up a new book. But, this book was on recommendation and I hardly ever read the quotes from the other famous and not-so-famous people that marketing folks decide to put on the dust jacket. Somehow, the opinion of an old college writing buddy always trumps what someone else might say. Especially in this case. Now mind you, I didn't notice this until I picked the book back up to read it -- I bought it for a buck at a local library book sale entirely on the title and author because, as I said, it was recommended. On the back cover of -- what I will remind you is -- a Nora Roberts' Romance novel is a quote from Stephen King.

Which jolts me enough as all sorts of strange dot-connecting (I mean think about it: the king of horror and suspense commenting on a popular romance novelist's book?). But then there's the whole blandness of the quote: "Nora Roberts is Cool." (In case you can't see it well on the first pic, here's another. As you can see, that's the only quote on the back of this book.)

What really does that say? What really does that mean?? Absolutely nothing. Seriously? Could they have found someone else? Someone who perhaps might have even said something about the book? I mean, come on. If he'd said something like "Nora Roberts builds a suspenseful plot that drags you kicking and screaming towards the inevitable conclusion... a must read." I may have been a little less disbelieving that he had anything more than an offer of a few hundred to say something for the back of this book. I may have even been intrigued. But this?

Whatever he may have said about Ms Roberts: Not cool, Mr. King. Not cool.

And now I'm slightly disillusioned about Stephen King altogether. ::sigh:: At least I'm enjoying the Nora Roberts book. And I do think that she builds a suspenseful plot that drags you towards the conclusion. And Nora can quote me on that next time. I'll write more about it when I'm finished reading, though.

Have a great week!