A turn up for the books
YOU’RE familiar, I’m sure, with the saying “don’t judge a book by its cover”. I’m also sure you’ll agree that it’s absolute nonsense. Me, I judge pretty much every book that way, to determine if it’ll be my cup of tea.Why wouldn’t I? A book’s cover offers the best possible clue as to its contents.
There’s the chick-lit kind of cover, the murder mystery kind of cover, the historical fiction kind of cover, the “recommended by The Guardian, so don’t say you haven’t been warned” kind of cover, and so on.
Judging a book by its cover can save you hours. Hours that could be spent dithering in WH Smith or Waterstones (I do feel it has let the side down, by the way, since it dropped its apostrophe).
Over a typical year, judging books by their covers could free you up enough time to read, say, a Booker Prize winner. Or, better still, clear out the garden shed. But here is a funny thing I have learned from watching tonight’s episode of BETWEEN THE COVERS (BBC2, 7pm), the book review show, back for a new run, in which Sara Cox and guests sit around chatting about the latest releases.
It turns out that Alex Jones – yes, her from The One Show, who’s one of the people appearing tonight – judges a book by its final page.
Yes, seriously. Alex will apparently pick up a book in a shop, flick straight to its ending and read the last paragraph to decide whether or not she should buy it. “I thought that was completely normal,” she adds.
Weird, eh? But it gets weirder.
Also on tonight’s show is actress Amanda Abbington – formerly of Sherlock and Mr Selfridge and some other stuff – and guess what? Amanda does the same. “I just don’t see why you wouldn’t,” she argues.
In answer to the obvious criticism of this technique, Alex insists (and Amanda agrees): “You’ve forgotten the end by the time you’ve got there.”
But I’m sorry, I just don’t buy that. For example, the very reason I will never bother reading Doctor Zhivago – literary classic though it is – is because I already know that it ends with the doctor becoming David Tennant again. Elsewhere tonight, the semi-finalists in THE GREAT BRITISH BAKE OFF (C4, 8pm) face a particularly tricky showstopper.
“The judges would like you to create your own visually spectacular take on the traditional Nordic croquant,” presenter Matt Lucas announces.
“An elaborate, multi-tiered Swedish patisserie,” his co-host Noel Fielding goes on to explain, “using almond biscuit dough and marzipan, and featuring icing and sugar work decorations.”
An even bigger challenge, I’d suggest, would be to eat that and not turn a funny shade of green.