Books I wouldn't read even if they were the last books on earth:
1. A collection of Lynndie England's excuses for what she did to humiliate her country at the Abu Ghrab prison in Iraq - disguised as a biography, of course. According to the Huntington, West Virginia, Herald-Dispatch:
An August appearance at the Library of Congress was canceled over safety concerns, but Taylor Books owner Ann Saville says she’s had only one call and one e-mail from people who are upset.2. Rob Blagojevich's book, The Governor, in which this compulsive liar tries to steal a few more dollars from those gullible enough to throw their money at him. The Chicago Tribune's Eric Zorn is blogging this clown of a politician chapter-by-chapter for the newspaper:
Taylor says hosting England doesn’t indicate support for her actions. Saville says she has an open-door policy for any author who self-publishes.
England was photographed holding a restraint around an Iraqi man’s neck, and giving a thumbs-up and pointing at the genitals of naked, hooded men.
It was literally just five pages ago that Blagojevich was complaining bitterly about feeling strong-armed by the Madigans into making a political donation. Now he's gushing over Dick Mell's ability to "persuade...leverage and ...threaten" to win elections.I am a little surprised that Mr. Zorn seems to be taking a man who has brought such shame on himself and his family at his word. Why would anyone believe anything he says - or pay to read more lies from him?
It seems that being untroubled by irony is one of the pleasures of being Rod Blagojevich.
3. Anything with James Patterson's name on its cover - and it seems that Entertainment Weekly agrees:
That’s right: his next 17 books. That commits the former advertising exec to the publisher until 2012, for 11 more adult books plus six books for younger readers. That’s actually a slackening of his current publishing pace. By year’s end, Patterson will have published a whopping 22 books in the last three years alone.[...]
It’s an impressive commercial operation. The question is, can James Patterson™ be considered a prolific author in the way we regard Joyce Carol Oates (nine books in the last three years, by my count) or Alexander McCall Smith (ten books in three years)? Or is he more like Carolyn Keene or Franklin W. Dixon, the credited “authors” of the comparably well-branded Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys mystery series? Are you still a writer if you subcontract out much of the actual, you know, writing?I'm just saying...
James Patterson sucks and thanks for continually saying so. He's not a writer...he's a "name" seller.
ReplyDeletewww.shishnit.org
Ooh, so I'm not the only one who thinks Patterson is more along the lines of Carolyn Keene and Franklin W. Dixon.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to believe that anyone is throwing perfectly good money away on any of these books, but in the case of the James Patterson books, I know it is inevitable. It's hard for me to see anything but greed motivating this man.
ReplyDeleteYou pity the trees used for these books. Yet you read Glenn Beck?
ReplyDeleteGreed may be motivating Patterson, but it's the American public who are buying.
ReplyDeleteLynndie England comes across as a dim, very dim bulb.
ReplyDeleteKristy, the man is sort of a store-brand knock-off when it comes to books...the word "generic" would be too kind.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely, LibraryGirl...he's no more than that anymore.
ReplyDeletePatterson is laughing (at us)all the way to the bank, Alissa.
ReplyDeleteTony S., yes and yes. You are very observant.
ReplyDeleteGaston, sadly, that's the truth...and I shake my head every time I look at a fiction bestseller list.
ReplyDeleteSuzi, I would almost feel sorry for the woman if she had not done the despicable things she did in Iraq...wonder who actually wrote this "book."
ReplyDeleteI read somewhere that her ghostwriter and she had issues right from the beginning, and that he had to sit with her for hours and hours to get something out of her that he could put across to make her into a human being with whom readers could empathize.
ReplyDeleteHow pathetic is that? I can't even imagine ever feeling any sympathy for someone so stupid as to have done what she did over such a long period. The fact that the military even accepted her is a disgrace.
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