How not to describe a book

[sawyl]

I like recommending books. I'm evangelical about it. I love the challenge of tuning suggestions to particular sensibilities, of persuading someone to read something they wouldn't otherwise consider.

I especially loved this exchange, from Sarah Moss' excellent Cold Earth, in which Nina tries to get Jim to read a 19th century novel in an attempt to take his mind off the arrival or non-arrival of the plane to return them to civilisation:

"...What about Waverley? You'd like that. Walter Scott."
"What's it about?"
"Masculinity and national identity, mostly. Whether it's better to be Scottish and Romantic or English and reasonable."
Nothing out to sea, either. The only thing that moves here now is the grass and the water.
"No, what's it about really? What happens?"
She raised an eyebrow.

Moss, S., (2010), Cold Earth, Granta, 238