Are bad blurbs a good thing?

[ApK]

Originally Posted by kacir

For me, for example, English is a third language (used to be fourth).

You've forgotten a language you used to know?

[speakingtohe]

When I was buying paper I would read the blurb, if it looked interesting, I would read the first page. Then if still undecided I would read a page or two somewhere in the middle. If not hooked by then I would put it back.

The blurb was the main deciding factor, bad blurb or no blurb, I wouldn't take it for free.

Helen

[kacir]

Originally Posted by ApK

You've forgotten a language you used to know?

I have stopped using it, and at this moment I speak [and *read* and write] English much better than Russian that used to be my third language. I speak another two languages that I am better at than English. One of them my mother language, of course ;-)

Yes, you can forget a language, especially when it is the one you were forced to learn in school against your will(*) and that you haven't had chance to use in the last 30 years ;-)
It is not entirely forgotten, I can still watch news in Russian(**), but it got *very* rusty.
I have never read a book in Russian, and I have read well over a thousand in English.

(*) your country being a part of Socialistic Block
(**) recently I got a new cable TV installed with a few channels in Russian

[cromag]

I'm impressed, kacir! In high school I'm afraid that I drove my French teacher into an early retirement!

I had to take (and pass) four semesters of a language at the university to graduate. At the end of my third semester I requested a meeting with my Russian teacher. I reminded him of the language requirement, and pointed out to him that if he failed me I was only going to have to take the course over again. I think he would have "enjoyed" that even less than I would have!

[MichelleLouring]

If no effort has gone into the blurb(and everything else that meets the eye immediately, like the title), there's not really anything that can make me give the sample a try.
Don't get me wrong, I'm horrible at writing interesting blurbs, but I know how to write correct English. A single typo can happen and be overlooked(I cringe when I think about the first time I received a paperback copy of my first book and a word had accidentally been deleted from the blurb), but no proper writer would forget to capitalize the first letter in a sentence or a name.
So yes, bad blurbs would certainly prevent me from buying a bad book on impulse. As someone else wrote, it's a time-saver!

[GA Russell]

kacir, when I was in high school we were all required to attend a speech given by an elderly American priest who had spent his entire adult life as a foreign missionary. I don't remember where.

His accent was so thick with his adopted tongue that no one could understand him!