Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time
| Log in
  1. Follow us on Facebook
  2. Follow us on Instagram
  3. Follow us on Bluesky
  4. Follow us on Goodreads
  5. RSS Feeds

  • Home
  • About
    • Getting Started in CBR18
    • Rules of Respect
    • Cannon Book Club
    • Diversions
    • Fan Mail
    • Holiday Book Exchange
    • Book Bingo Reading Challenge
    • Participation Badges
    • AlabamaPink
    • About Cannonball Read
  • Our Team
    • The CBR Team
    • Leaderboard
    • Recent Comments
    • Participant Interviews
    • Cannonballer Location Maps
    • Our Volunteers
    • Meet MsWas
  • Categories
    • Review Genres
    • Tags
    • Star Ratings
    • Featured Review Archive
  • Fight Cancer
    • How We Fight Cancer
    • Donate
    • CBR Merchandise
  • FAQ
  • Contact
    • Contact Form
    • 2026 Registration
    • Suggest a Review
    • Newsletter Sign Up
    • Newsletter Archive
    • Social Media

I hated, hated, hated this book

Magic and Loss by Virginia Heffernan

January 21, 2020 by octothorp 2 Comments

I’m actively angry at this book. “Probing my own experience, I discovered I generally find happiness in book reading when it’s desultory, unregulated, and somehow truant. I confess to taking gross liberties with traditional books, savoring the rule breaking, skipping forewords, concordances, and boring chapters, while lavishing prurient attention on jacket copy, dedications, and acknowledgements.” So what you’re saying is you judge books by their covers and don’t pay attention while reading? That’s evident from the prose. Apparently Heffernan doesn’t pay attention while writing either. […]

Filed Under: Non-Fiction Tagged With: I can not, I fail to can, nope nope nope, Virginia Heffernan, worst of 2020

octothorp's CBR12 Review No:8 · Genres: Non-Fiction · Tags: I can not, I fail to can, nope nope nope, Virginia Heffernan, worst of 2020 ·
Rating:
· 2 Comments


Recent Comments

  • elderberrywine
    on Early Jazz 101
    Yeah, it’s a great look at early jazz. Poor guy, but he was definitely not the only one.
  • Halbs
    on Early Jazz 101
    Oh, I can't wait to read this one! I love good music writing.
  • Eric
    on Bruh.
    Agree 💯 with this review. I'd even add that I didn't buy Willem's relationship with Jude. It was just a...
  • Liz
    on Oh God, I’m Discoursing (Mac Barnett’s MAKE BELIEVE)
    Hmmm, I think it depends? If you're in children's literacy work, writing for children, or have children you read to,...
  • Terrence Dunlop
    on Oh God, I’m Discoursing (Mac Barnett’s MAKE BELIEVE)
    So is it a must-read? A should-read? Or a meh. I liked your discoursing!
See More Recent Comments »

Support Our Mission

  • Support Our Mission, Donate Today!
  • FAQ
  • Shop
  • Volunteers
  • Leaderboard
  • AlabamaPink
  • Contact

Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo

The reviews and comments posted on this site reflect the opinions of individual posters and do not reflect the views of Cannonball Read.

© 2026 Cannonball Read Inc., a registered 501(c)(3) | Log in