Every now and then one should read a particularly bad book. Not too often. There are too many books to read before either the body or the mind gives way to do that. But now and then ... yes, it's a must. Be careful that it isn't a book somebody else says is bad. What's the point in that. No rather, pick up a book that you think might be good, or lots of other people are reading and then when you realise it is going nowhere, persevere. If it's particularly bad, it can even be good, but of course what something like that does is reinforce what good books can do for you. Bad books accentuate literature by their total lack of any semblance of it. Yes, folks I'm reading one now. Dan Brown's 'The Da Vinci Code' (no link, I don't want you to go to the trouble!) is truly awful. Yes, you learn a bit about art, religion and strange sects (assuming he isn't feeding us porkies), but I didn't know New York Times' best seller list authors could use clichés with abandon and still get favourable reviews. I understand the book is probably selling well because of the controversial nature of the subject (summarised in one sentence 'the Catholic church has its share of nutters and there's an almighty secret that those nutters want to get their hands on'), but for crying out loud, His Dark Materials had a go at the Church in a big way but Philip Pullman at least took us on his path with an extensive vocabulary and a vivid and engaging narrative. And his books are supposedly meant for children. Where were Brown's editors? Or do thriller writers and their publishers have a very low regard of their reader's ability to appreciate English. I paid about 300 yen for it at a bazaar and that was about 2,000 yen too much. Anyway I've found my bad book. Don't go searching for yours, but when it comes have some laughing gas at hand.
Posted by Joe at June 6, 2004 11:45 PMMy, you are on a reading binge!
Posted by: martin at June 7, 2004 06:42 AM