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Slartibartfast · 03-25-2004, 11:08 AM

Those of us who love to read run into some books we love, some we are indifferent to, and some we don't like.

But then there are those books that suck the life from us. Books that for some reason we finish reading despite the revulsion we feel page after page. Books that bring up hatred for the author, publisher, and everyone involved. Books that make you never want to read again.

Every aspiring writer should save a book that is so bad that when you read it, you are filled with the knowledge that anything you could possibly write will be better than that book. (I can't remember the author who I paraphrase here)

Don't point out piddly books that are just mediocre. I want you to point out books that are EVIL, WRONG, and very badly BROKEN.

The one book on my all time hate list is Michael Crichton's Sphere. This book started out okay, but the writing, the plot, the characters were all average or below average. The book has Crichton's typical philosophy of anti-science, but he has written before good science cautionary tales - Andromeda Strain and Jurassic Park for example.

But what propels this book into its unique position of number one on my shit list is its ending. It was not just a contrived ending, it was an ending that had zero respect for the reader. It was so bad I finished the book and felt cheated. The ending was an insult to the reader's intelligence.

This one used bookstore in Montclair has outside several bookcases with the reject books they are trying to unload for a quarter each. While waiting outside for a friend, I counted about ten copies of Sphere scattered in the bookcases. I was tempted to buy them all and burn them in a bonfire.

Oh, and when I had HBO, I tried to sit through Sphere the movie to see if a typical Hollywood mangling of a book would cancel out Crichton's original mangled writing. Good God that movie sucked! They managed to keep the essence of the book and add to it the most wooden acting I have ever seen. Dustin Haufmann, the one actor I recognized, should have known better than to be in this movie.

03-25-2004, 11:08 AM	#1
Slartibartfast \|-0-\| <-0-> \|-0-\| Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: New Jersey Posts: 516	Books you really, really HATE Those of us who love to read run into some books we love, some we are indifferent to, and some we don't like. But then there are those books that suck the life from us. Books that for some reason we finish reading despite the revulsion we feel page after page. Books that bring up hatred for the author, publisher, and everyone involved. Books that make you never want to read again. Every aspiring writer should save a book that is so bad that when you read it, you are filled with the knowledge that anything you could possibly write will be better than that book. (I can't remember the author who I paraphrase here) Don't point out piddly books that are just mediocre. I want you to point out books that are EVIL, WRONG, and very badly BROKEN. The one book on my all time hate list is Michael Crichton's Sphere. This book started out okay, but the writing, the plot, the characters were all average or below average. The book has Crichton's typical philosophy of anti-science, but he has written before good science cautionary tales - Andromeda Strain and Jurassic Park for example. But what propels this book into its unique position of number one on my shit list is its ending. It was not just a contrived ending, it was an ending that had zero respect for the reader. It was so bad I finished the book and felt cheated. The ending was an insult to the reader's intelligence. This one used bookstore in Montclair has outside several bookcases with the reject books they are trying to unload for a quarter each. While waiting outside for a friend, I counted about ten copies of Sphere scattered in the bookcases. I was tempted to buy them all and burn them in a bonfire. Oh, and when I had HBO, I tried to sit through Sphere the movie to see if a typical Hollywood mangling of a book would cancel out Crichton's original mangled writing. Good God that movie sucked! They managed to keep the essence of the book and add to it the most wooden acting I have ever seen. Dustin Haufmann, the one actor I recognized, should have known better than to be in this movie.