Book Descriptions: Love Them or Hate Them?
// By Jessica 17 Comments
19 Oct
2012

Book Descriptions: Love Them or Hate Them?

I’ve been having this dilemma for a while now.  I don’t know whether to put book descriptions in my book reviews.  I personally hate book descriptions.  My favorite thing about reading a book is being surprised and book descriptions usually ruin this for me.  I pick a book to read based on how often I see a book talked about and it’s genre.  That’s it.  I knew absolutely nothing about Harry Potter when I picked it up years ago.  I knew that everyone was talking about this “kid book” and that it was a kid book.  I’m not even sure I was aware that it was about wizards.  Discovering all that while I was reading it was simply magical.

Also, I think that most book descriptions tell way too much.  If I have read one before I start a book, I feel like for half the book I’m going “Yeah, yeah I know.  I’ve read this already.”  And then reading it is not fun.

For example.  I’m reading The Forsaken by Lisa M. Stasse right now and I’m really enjoying it.  Here’s the book description from Goodreads:

As an obedient orphan of the U.N.A. (the super-country that was once Mexico, the U.S., and Canada), Alenna learned at an early age to blend in and be quiet—having your parents taken by the police will do that to a girl. But Alenna can’t help but stand out when she fails a test that all sixteen-year-olds have to take: The test says she has a high capacity for brutal violence, and so she is sent to The Wheel, an island where all would-be criminals end up.

The life expectancy of prisoners on The Wheel is just two years, but with dirty, violent, and chaotic conditions, the time seems a lot longer as Alenna is forced to deal with civil wars for land ownership and machines that snatch kids out of their makeshift homes. Desperate, she and the other prisoners concoct a potentially fatal plan to flee the island. Survival may seem impossible, but Alenna is determined to achieve it anyway.

This description describes about the first 100 pages of the plot.  A lot of book descriptions are like this.  Reading the description before reading this book might have made me bored for the first 100 pages and I might have not have liked it as much as I do now.  I mean, what’s the point of reading the description and then reading it all over again in the novel?

But obviously people out there like them since one is written for every single book.  I realize that not reading a book description before reading a book is like going to a movie without watching the trailer. (And I watch movie trailers.  Yes, I realize the irony of that.)

So I have a few questions about book descriptions and I’m dying to know what you think:

  • Do you like book descriptions?
  • Do you read them? If you do, why? (I really want to know this one.  I feel like I might be missing out on something.)
  • Do they help you decide if you want to read a book?
  • Would you like to see full book summaries in my review or would you rather have me briefly introduce the book in my review?

Posted on: October 19, 2012 9:04 am By Jessica Filed Under: My Reading Diary 17 Comments
  • Carrie Knudson

    I rarely ever read book descriptions. I feel like they give WAY to much away. Hear that publishers, we readers like to be surprised. If I read the book description I will just read one or two sentences and then stop. Just enough to wet my appetite, you know.

    • http://www.booksatruestory.com/ Jessica B

      THIS! I totally agree :)

  • http://300pages.com/ Stephanie Jobe

    I think it is a love hate relationship. I find them necessary when picking books but sometimes they tell too much, or they give a very inaccurate idea of the book (with those I usually flip the book over and yell at it before continuing). I read them because I feel like a cover and a title isn’t necessarily enough to tell me if I will like a book, especially with the ridiculous girl in a pretty dress trend. I read them less then I use to and those I do read are often skimmed and not necessarily finished. They do help me decide sometimes. I prefer brief introductions, but it something I struggle with in my blog as well. How much to say? I try to give a general idea versus a summary but I always worry I give too much away like the book summaries that drive me crazy.

    • http://www.booksatruestory.com/ Jessica B

      Ha ha that was a nice visual of yelling at the bad book description :D I really struggle with the balance of telling what the book is about with out giving it all away. I think a brief intro in the review is the way to go. Thanks for the comment!

  • Jenny

    I’ve talked about this with so many people. I tend to like a synopsis so I at least know what I’m getting in to but I hate ones that tell you the whole story. I can’t handle reading a book without some sort of idea of what will happen, though. Blame the control freak in me. ;)

    • http://www.booksatruestory.com/ Jessica B

      I would read them if they were shorter and more careful about revealing too much plot! I’m a control freak, too. I try to kill the control freak in so many ways like buying different editions for the same series and jumping right in a book with no idea what will happen. Stuff like that :)

  • Pogue

    http://nulaanne.wordpress.com/2012/10/20/intersting-questions/ I liked these questions so I answered them on my blog.

    • http://www.booksatruestory.com/ Jessica B

      WOW. you wrote a blog post about it? I’m a little speechless right now. I’m so going to read it!

  • Inky

    I read book Descriptions because I don’t like going into a book blind about the subject. It’s like all you’re doing is judging a book by it’s cover. I want to know before I even decide to read the book if it’s something I’m interested in enough to care about reading. Yeah, I kinda hate when it’s spoiled but for me I’m willing to take the risk and still try to love the book anyway.

    • http://www.booksatruestory.com/ Jessica B

      I do judge a book a lot by it’s cover. But it’s not all about it being a “pretty” cover but if the cover does a good job showing me what the story is about. The genre is the biggest factor in deciding if I’m going to read something. I have a good handle on genres that I really like. For example all I knew about Divergent was that it was dystopian and that a lot of people were talking about it. I went in completely blind and it was a lot of fun. I think it helps me like books more often because I have zero expectations going into it. Another way I get books to read is if they are mentioned in other books. I’ve found a lot of really good classics that way.

      • Inky

        You make a good point. I see how that could work. :D That’s true as well. Love finding gems in gems. ;)

  • Leah

    I do describe the book in my review, but I don’t like to give away spoilers, especially the ending. I have to give readers a want to read the book.

    I do read book descriptions. I want to know if I think I’ll enjoy the book. I can’t really know that if I don’t know what it’s about.

    • http://www.booksatruestory.com/ Jessica B

      Very true. Thanks for the comment. :)

  • http://twitter.com/wolfluvr420 Hannah Spainhour

    I try not to read the descriptions because they do tend to giveaway a lot of the plot. If it is a book I haven’t seen or heard about I will read the first part of the description to get a feel if I will like it or not.

    • http://www.booksatruestory.com/ Jessica B

      That’s a good idea to just read the first part of the description. Thanks for the comment!

  • Kathryn @ Clean Teen Fiction

    The reviews I read are books that I’ve already heard of and have an interest in so it doesn’t matter to me if you have a book synopsis on your reviews.

    I LOVE book synopsis though. I actually can’t read a book without reading it first. Sometimes if it’s been awhile since I read it when I finally start the book I have to go back and read the synopsis again. I think for me it gives me a guideline to where this book is going so I can focus. I like to know if it’s a boy or girl talking from the beginning too (I had some friends that thought Katniss was a boy for the first few chapters.). I also read them to know if it’s a book I’m interested in at all. It’s hard to tell the genre from a book’s cover.

    I think it’s cool you don’t read them because some do give more information then they should, but there haven’t been that many that bothered me. Oh wait, I NEVER read the synopsis of the 2nd book in a series if I haven’t read book 1 because just the character names will give away if someone is still alive or if they got together.

    • http://www.booksatruestory.com/ Jessica B

      I only read book reviews for books that I’ve already read, too LOL. That’s too funny that your friend thought Katniss was a boy. When I was reading Monument 14, I couldn’t tell if it was a boy or girl and it didn’t even say in the book description! I like looking up the genre on Goodreads and Amazon. Synopsis’s for series are the worst! If I accidentally come across one on a book blog it can spoil the whole first book.