Judging a Book by Its Lover: A Field Guide to the Hearts and Minds of Readers Everywhere

Want to impress the hot stranger at the bar who asks for your take on 'Infinite Jest'? Dying to shut up the blowhard in front of you who’s pontificating on Cormac McCarthy’s “recurring road narratives”? Having difficulty keeping Francine Prose and Annie Proulx straight?

For all those overwhelmed readers who need to get a firm grip on the relentless onslaught of must-read books to stay on top of the inevitable conversations that swirl around them, Lauren Leto’s Judging a Book by Its Lover is manna from literary heaven! A hilarious send-up of—and inspired homage to—the passionate and peculiar world of book culture, this guide to literary debate leaves no reader or author unscathed, at once adoring and skewering everyone from Jonathan Franzen to Ayn Rand to Dostoyevsky and the people who read them.

Review
“If CliffsNotes had an opinion and a couple of drinks under their belts, they’d sound like Lauren Leto.” (Omnivoracious.com )

“It’s On the Origin of Species for the library set.” (James Frey, author of A Million Little Pieces )

“In terms of allowing me to sound smart at cocktail parties, this book surpassed my English degree by page twelve.” (Christian Lander, author of Stuff White People Like )

“Leto is as funny as she is well-read; a delight for bibliophiles and wannabes alike.” (Wylie Overstreet, author of The History of the World According to Facebook )