Awful books

I grab what I can find to read in the airport so picked up a book and I won't mention the title but it was written by a NY Times Bestseller so I figured it should be good. It's so badly written and the concept is so stupid, I can't finish it. Seems the author just writes page after page of words to fill the required number of words.

Is it because I like good writers that I wonder how this junk got published or do women today actually like to read nonsense?

Dianne, I too have bought books by authors who I respected only to find them so badly written that I couldn't bear to read them. I wonder if someone else is writing that stuff of if they just throw some words together to meet deadlines after they are famous.

I've been reading about 'branding' as it applies to writers. It seems that once your name is established as a 'brand' with a couple of books, you can get away with just about anything. I was noticing a book my husband was reading that had a famous author's name in big letters on the front, but with a closer look, it appeared that someone else had actually written the book. ??

I guess publishers sell whatever sells even if it is only a name on the front cover.
smile

I have read a few Stephen King books also used as examples of WHAT NOT TO DO by a very good and accredited writing school. He breaks all the rules and he admits it. But he is who he is and if he scrolled his name on toilet paper someone would publish it, gladly...

chatty, you're so funny! Love the toilet paper comment.

I buy most of the books I read. I always have a pen to underline and take notes. I find myself editing some of the darn things as I go along. Do you do that, or am I anal?

maybe you should mention titles so the rest of us don't waste our time (and money) on atrocious writing.

I don't have the author's name because I threw the book in the trash. From the back cover it said she had written three books on loving a nerd, if that helps. I couldn't believe the amount of pages wasted on unmeaning dialogue. The whole thing was "supposed" to get the reader built up the the great sex scene. It was just so stupid and unbelievable. This is why I don't often read fiction and the selection in the airports are slim pickings.

Ii do love Jennifer Weiner and Chatherine Todd though. Both funny and surprising.

oh my gosh, Dianne, I know who you're talking about. It's Vicki Lewis Thompson. Was the name of the book GONE WITH THE NERD? She's also written NERD GONE WILD and THE NERD WHO LOVED ME.

That bad, huh? Yikes.

Gosh Vicki, I can't remember the title of the one I got but I believe she wrote those as well. I figured with three other books out she would be good. Maybe I'm just not into that sexy, fabricated, this doesn't happen in real life, type of books. It was ridiculous. I would skip through 5-6 pages at a time just trying to get to something new or a change of topic besided the two lusting after each other.