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Books are about to become a little less "Impressive!", "Appealing!" and "Spellbinding!". Fewer still will offer a " tour de force" ( whatever one of those might be) . That is because Simon & Schuster, an American publisher, has decided to stop doing book blurbs ( also called " puffs" in Britain) -those invited comments from other authors on the back of books. They are, says Sean Manning, the company's publisher, " very awkward" .

The problem with blurbs is that there is always a need to publicly evaluate books. It is a fact in the life of a writer that if one publicly publishes, one is going to be publicly judged. When negative, such judgments can be painful, when stupid, it can be maddening, but when positive, it can also be a joyful, supportive moment. However, when a writer gets prearranged remarks, it devalues legitimate ( 合情合理的) responses.

The style of a puff is, as the name suggests, breathless. Someone might declare a book " authoritative" ; another, " unputdownable" ; and a third, " If you can read this book without screaming with excitement, your soul is dead" . You feel guilty, wrote George Orwell, when you are in the library and " fail to scream with delight" . Also, in theory blurbs are testament to an author's narrative skills. In truth they are a testament to their social ones: they often reflect arm-twisting rather than artistry. Literary heavyweights hate giving them. " We would as soon sell our tears for lemon-drops" , wrote Nathaniel Parker Willis, a poet, than thus " spoil one of the truthful adjectives in the world" . New authors struggle to get blurbs, which is partly why Simon & Schuster is giving them up.

Blurbs more often exemplify the very bad writing. Many are less written than pieced up from stock phrases-" A heartbreaking, unputdownable page-turner!" -with an exclamation mark at the end. This makes them exhausting to read! There has been honest copy on dust jackets-T. S. Eliot's description of Louis MacNeice, a fellow poet, informed readers that " His work is accessible but unpopular" -but it is too rare.

It turns out that the habit of using words like " unputdownable " is itself quite putdownable. Mr. Manning says his editors will use the time they save on chasing quotes to instead produce good books. Not, note, " charming" or " absorbing" books but simply " the best books possible" . It is an admirably modest aim.