The Digested Read DISTRIBUTION ONLY

What do Pamela Stephenson's Bravemouth, Ian McEwan's Saturday and Darren Gough's Dazzler have in common? They've all been properly cut down to size in John Crace's Digested Read. Each week in the Guardian, the reader's champion takes the book that's produced the most media hype and gleefully puts paid to the publisher's claims of pure gold. In 500 bitingly satirical words he retells the story while pointing his pen at the clunky plot, stylistic tics and pretensions to Big Ideas. Nothing and no one is sacred in his irreverent pastiche. Whether it's Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, Dave Pelzer's The Privilege of Youth or Alain de Botton's Status Anxiety, after reading these miniature gems, no book will ever seem quite the same again.