When Looking for Alaska was inching toward publication about a year ago, my editor asked a lot of people to read it and consider writing a blurb to go on the back of the jacket. The only person who even agreed to read it was the extraordinarily talented K. L. Going, who wrote the great blurb that appears on the hardcover edition of Alaska.

And so I made a solemn vow that I would always, always, always read first novels if I was ever asked to do so, even if I decided against blurbing them. I figured this was the kind of solemn vow I could safely make, because I couldn't imagine a time when anyone would care about my opinion of a book.

Well, I'm still not convinced that anyone will care, but I was asked to blurb a book recently: Will Leitch's Catch. In the interest of full disclosure I should note that I knew of Mr. Leitch before he ever wrote a novel--he used to write a wonderful column called Life as a Loser, and we struck up a correspondence after I sent him fan mail.

(Let this be a lesson: Always send fan mail. Hint.)

As it happens, I really liked Catch, and I was thrilled to be able to blurb it. But man, it was a lot of pressure. I can see why people don't like doing it.

I wonder how much blurbs really matter. Do you (and by "you," I mean "the four readers of this blog") place a lot of weight on blurbs?