This, as pointed out by others, is an extremely funny blog post on the Tor site about how to bullshit your way through conversations about books you haven’t read. 

But as you go down and read the comments (something I should have stopped myself from doing), a battle erupts between Patrick  Neilsen Hayden and Jo Walton and everyone else over the humour merits of the article.  What’s worse are the fans who found the article funny, but also attempt to justify the wowserish view of Walton and PNH. 

I don’t know Walton or PNH (though I assume people on my flist do), but are they so earnest and serious in real life?