books on the inside: the literary slap

Can I let you in on a little secret? Okay, it’s not really a secret, as I’ve mentioned it here before, but I have a bit of an obsession with the Literary Slap. And even though I love talking about the outsides of books, I thought I might be nice to insert a little bit of what I like on the insides of books.

Over the past two years, I’ve been collecting photos of the Literary Slap. I don’t know what it is about this expression, but I love it. (Side note: I am not a violent, slap-happy person.) See if you can guess which books these below passages come from. I would reward you with a prize except I only remember know two of them — aside from the blatantly obvious one.

What about you? Are there any literary phrases or expressions you can’t get enough of? Or any that you wish could be banished from the English language?

About these ads

17 thoughts on “books on the inside: the literary slap

  1. Haha, I know that fifth one down! Raw Blue, of course (I think I’d be scared shitless if I met a ‘Shane’ IRL).

    Can’t say I have any literary phrases that I pick up on, but I do notice if an author has an annoying word habit, i.e. overuse of ridiculous adjectives or cliched word choice or syntax. I’m reading one right now who likes parenthetical phrases – it’s not quite enough to go overboard, but it’s enough that he occasionally uses them for no good purpose and they read as redundant.

    • Yes, Raw Blue! You folks are so much better than I am at these things. I’ve noticed that the Literary Slap, when it happens, is normally only used once in a novel. Because it’s just THAT powerful, I s’pose. ;)

  2. Hee this is awesome. Other than Catch of the Day, there’s Audrey Wait! …and is the last one Five Flavors of Dumb? Piper is there, but it could be any Piper from other books, too.

  3. I didn’t know any of these, but I LOVE that you have a literary phrase that you love! I love this post SO MUCH.

  4. I feel so happy that you included Catch of the Day!! One of my favorite romance books ever.

  5. Am I the only one who thinks that out of context these literary slaps sound silly? I’m going to go Ctrl-F my work-in-progress this very minute! The funniest one is the Echols book, where merely reading his comments makes her feel slapped in the face.

    • Out of context, I agree, they’re totally silly. But you can just FEEL them, the burn, the embarrassment and the shock, you know? I’m curious to see how many Literary Slaps there are in your work. =)

  6. I love this! I’m so glad I’m not the only one :)

    I was reading Love-shy at the airport on the weekend, and the main character imagines smacking someone in the head for ordering a ridiculous coffee. I confess I laughed out loud.

  7. Didn’t recognize any of them, but I like the post :) I have quite a few favorite words, but I can’t think of any phrases. I get that sometimes. People would ask me “What’s your favorite _______?” and my mind. Goes. BLANK. Hey, maybe this one. My mind goes blank.

Sharing is Caring

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out / Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s