I’ve been traveling recently and wanted some audiobooks to listen to. I canceled my Audible subscription years ago, and don’t really want to renew it. I like the idea of a Kobo audiobook subscription because one phone app reads ebooks AND plays audiobooks.

So I’ve been perusing Kobo’s store looking for something worthwhile. The first observation to be made is how formulaic and boring the blurbs are, for just about every book. When a book has a blurb that’s not competent or interesting, I lose confidence that the book itself will be competent or interesting.

The next observation I made was my own reaction to the accolades quoted in the product descriptions. Rave reviews from some NPC at the Washington Compost are supposed to impress me, but actually have the opposite effect. It’s safe to assume no book will ever again be well received by any of the legacy rags if it doesn’t conform to The Narrative and faithfully push the Overton Window further left.

Making the New York Slimes Bestseller list usually gives me the same general warning about the book, and “best seller” is often a dubious title as far as this particular distinction goes.

In the landscape of this culture war, if the “mainstream” pop culture svengalis love your work…you’re part of the problem. In fact, if your work doesn’t piss off the commies (and even some of the “moderates”), you’re doing something wrong.

That’s where we’re at.