What is your favorite line from a review?

Misfit · Post by **Misfit** » Fri September 12th, 2008, 6:56 pm

Not sure if this belongs here or in the chat thread but I'll trust madame moderator to move me if necessary

I thought it would be fun to quote your all time favorite lines from reviews you've come across, whether they be positive or scathing reviews. I'm not naming the book I found this quote on but I just had to share it,

"as a book, is so sloppily written I fully intend to take it outside tomorrow and shoot it (possibly more than once) thereby saving my family and friends the agony found within its pages."

Volgadon · Post by **Volgadon** » Fri September 12th, 2008, 7:59 pm

Waugh once wrote of the poet Stephen Spender (1909-1995) that "to see him fumbling with our rich and delicate language is to experience all the horror of seeing a Sèvres vase in the hands of a chimpanzee" (Tablet, 5 May 1951).

Divia · Post by **Divia** » Fri September 12th, 2008, 9:02 pm

LOL. Misfit that one is sweet. Love it!

Hmm, I'll have to keep my eye out. I cant recall any that have stood out.

Margaret · Post by **Margaret** » Fri September 12th, 2008, 9:20 pm

Does anyone remember what Mark Twain said of Jame Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans? It was pretty scathing, as I recall. And probably valid, because the one time I picked up The Last of the Mohicans, I set it back down pretty quickly.

Misfit · Post by **Misfit** » Fri September 12th, 2008, 9:25 pm

Hmmm, I'll have to see if I can find that. I did start that book as well and lost it pretty quickly.

**edited** I did find something but don't have time to read the entire thing right now.

Mark Twain also says that “by departing from Cooper's style and manner, all the facts could be put into 150 words, and the effects heightened at the same time.”

boswellbaxter · Post by **boswellbaxter** » Fri September 12th, 2008, 9:52 pm

Dorothy Parker wrote some zingers of book reviews. I think the line "This is not a book to be set aside lightly, but to be thrown away with great care" (or something like that) is hers.

sweetpotatoboy · Post by **sweetpotatoboy** » Fri September 12th, 2008, 10:00 pm

This was from a review I quoted on the former forum:

Quote: "At first I was sure the novel was a fine parody of a book so bad it has never been written, but it soon became obvious I was in the company of a mad man. More than that; a mad man who intends this as the first part of a trilogy. He must be stopped."