New Delhi, Feb. 22 -- A few months ago when the editor of Rahul Pandita's debut novel asked me for a blurb, I wrote that his book was "addictive". I thought I had found a way to say something meaningful about a book in a blurb, a form of praise that has become meaningless, filled with tired phrases like "tour de force." But then I realized that I had not been paying attention to book covers. 'Addictive' is the new 'unputownable.' Apparently, the world believes addiction is a good thing, as long as it is said of a book.

Mark Zuckerberg is unlikely to ever give a blurb saying, "It's addictive." Because the founder of Meta is accused of being one of the world's primary dealers of a drug. He is facing trial in Los Angeles, one that legal obs...