‘Blurbing' Is the Busy Gal's Trick for Great Conversation

You’re at dinner when someone asks, “What books have you read recently?”

Oh, boy. You’ve been so busy you barely have time to breathe let alone read. You freeze, wracking your brain for the last memoir or novel you read and debate whether or not a particularly long and dramatic Instagram caption counts.

You want to read more (you really do), but this month has been totally nuts. Luckily, there’s a solution. It’s called blurbing. 

In essence, blurbing is reading the blurbs on the backs of books to get a general sense of what happens. Basically, it’s SparkNotes for grown-ups.

To try it, identify a couple of buzzy books. Then, go to a bookstore or library (or, more realistically, Amazon) and read the books’ blurbs. You won’t come away with an in-depth analysis of themes and references, but you’ll get a general overview that you can work into conversations.

Are we saying you should stop even trying to read full books? Absolutely not, but as a backup conversational trick, blurbing is pretty darn great.

Repeat after us: Damn, I’ve been too slammed to read anything the last few weeks, but have you heard about the new Moriarty?