I receive Google quotes of the day. I particularly liked this one today from American authoress Mary Flannery O'Conner. Heralded as America's greatest short story writer she claims her life's greatest achievement was teaching her pet chicken to walk backward.
"Everywhere I go I'm asked if I think the university stifles writers. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them. There's many a best-seller that could have been prevented by a good teacher."
I think this comment lends itself to discussion from my blog readers. What best-seller should have never been? Which is the worst written yet made millions. My first vote was Eclipse but when I though about it further I relized Eclipse was much better than some others. I vote the worst best seller that I've ever read was Scarlett. This was a early 1990's reamake of Margret Mitchell's classic Gone With the Wind. Apparently some people thought the last line
"Frankly my dear I don't give a damn"
the oft quoted line of Rhett Butler's needed a poorly written 800 epilogue which only served to further prove that Scarlett O'Hara is one of the most self centered characters of all times.
So what do you think? What best seller do you wish you'd not spent money on and instead checked out from the library. Which one was recommended to you and suddenly you don't trust that person to recommend books? Please please leave your comments or I'll assume that you frankly don't give a damn.
15 comments:
Oh please. You'd put Eclipse over Steven King, all those political writers, the romance novelists, the other horror writers?
Riddle,
Leaders all know how to spell "noses." AND they know how to pick them bloody.
I think that anything by Jodi Picoult should be left to rot...I hate her writing style, I hate her formulaic plot lines, I hate her word choice, I hate how she cannot convey real emotions or create real characters...although she's great at creating soap-operay, one dimensional characters that stink of predictability and cliche...gaaah, I hate Jodi Picoult. Hate. When I pass her books (plural! why?) at the bookstore I want to hide them to protect the public, or at least vomit on them so they will be destroyed. Hate.
Hi Joan! Thanks for visiting my blog - and yes, I do love the bed. Unfortunately I'm so used to sleeping on a tiny twin that I just stick to the very edge of the new one! I don't have a worst bestseller, but I do have a "worst classic" - The Scarlett Letter. I was forced to read this book in high school and thought it was the most boring, depressing thing ever. Total waste of paper, if you ask me.
Well, there are a few books I've bought that I regretted (this was before my "read before buying policy") but none of them were bestsellers. I suppose I'd have to agree with you on Scarlett. I didn't read the book, but I saw part of the movie and it was awful.
Michael Crighton for me. And I read two of his books. --J
I love reading your blog Joan!! Very funny, tell the bearded one hi. I will call you soon. Kristine
P.S. We MUST go running up along Shoreline this summer. I come into SL in July.
Joanie you read books?
duh Spencer. I've read more books than you but who is counting?
My vote goes to a group of authors and they are all the contributers to the Bible. Talk about a snooze fest.
Unfortunately I also wasted several hours reading SCARLETT. My least favorite book in high school was The Grapes of Wrath. My favorites were Shakespeare.
I finally read the "beard" post and, as a beard advocate, I'd like to tell Spencer he is a quitter and an embarassment to hairy men everywhere. Amen
This is my 4th comment on this one post alone. Is that too many?
Dear Unmighty
No you can leave as many comments as you want. Obviously I just need to get around to posting again.
The Motorcycle Diaries. It was completely misleading. The motorcycle didn't make ONE entry.
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