Astonishing

Joe Queenan vows to only read books described by reviewers as "astonishing."

As for me, I vow to only read authors whom Lee Siegal has determined have "earned the right to use a triple negative." I will call them "Lee’s Triple Negative Boys."

Anyway, on to the quote.

Previously, I had limited my purchases to merchandise deemed “luminous” or “incandescent,” but this meant I ended up with an awful lot of novels about bees, Provence or Vermeer. The problem with incandescent or luminous books is that they veer toward the introspective, the arcane or the wise, while I prefer books that go off like a Roman candle. When I buy a book, I don’t want to come away wiser or happier or even better informed. I want to get blown right out of the water by the author’s breathtaking pyrotechnics. I want to come away astonished.