Mitch Albom redefines logrolling for the internet generation.
Though the only pleasure we ever took from The Five People You Meet in Heaven was the brilliance with which it held up the leg of our dining-room table, we know the Mitch Albom mega-best-seller has sold 11 million copies for a reason. (We don’t know what the reason is, but there has to be one, right?) That’s why we were unsurprised to find the full-page ad on the back of today’s Times Arts section for Five People and Albom’s recent For One More Day was super-flush with blurbs — a whopping eleven, by our count. So, what literary heavies weighed in to fête the feel-goody duo?
Uh … Jacqui White. Nicole Di Dio. Emily Landherr? Hmmm. A quick probe with Google reveals the experts to be none other than … commenters on Mitch Albom’s site. Wait. Does this mean the publishing industry has taken a leaf from Time and promoted You to fancy-pants blurber? Hyperion, be fair. You’re supposed to tell blurbers they don’t really have to read the book.
