Book Review Buzzwords

In a local newspaper column Michelle Kerns offers "The top 20 most annoying book reviewer cliches and how to use them all in one meaningless review". From her catalog, my favorite dirty dozen:

• gripping
• poignant
• compelling
• nuanced
• lyrical
• readable
• haunting
• rollicking
• timely
• sweeping
• unflinching
• powerful

Wow — the list itself almost makes a review! But Kerns omits one word I find myself using far too often: thoughtful. And we need another set of adjectives for negative commentary: self-indulgent, fuzzy, derivative, bitter, disorganized, obvious, ...

^z - 2010-04-03