A guilty pleasure: reading bad books

[Julie Lomoe]

I'm currently reading a mystery I consider terribly written - and it makes me inordinately happy. It's a first novel I bought at Malice Domestic. The publisher is first-rate, and the agent is well respected, although she once rejected me. I won't give any identifying details, but the plot is boring, the protagonist is annoying and wimpy, and it's repetitious and full of cliches. I'm enjoying editing it and writing nasty comments with a red pen.

It's reassuring to read such garbage, since it encourages me to believe that I too could crack a major market as this author has. Does anyone else feel this way - do you gloat over other people's bad writing?

By the way, I met many authors and bought quite a few first novels at Malice, so I don't want anyone to take this personally. If you're reading this and remember me, I probably loved your book!

[Jude Hardin]

When I pick up something I feel is sub-par (after giving it a fair fifty-page chance), I simply toss it aside. Life's too short--and there's too much good stuff out there--to waste much time on bad fiction.

[Pepper Smith]

Well, bad novels can be educational. They can teach you what not to do in your own novels.

And it is encouraging to know that people who write worse than you do are getting published. Sort of. LOL!

[Jude Hardin]

I don't know. I get phobic when I start reading bad prose. Like it might be contagious or something, LOL. The book I started yesterday...I felt the need for detox. Today I started the cleansing process with Dennis Lehane.

[Stephen Blackmoore]

I don't like to gloat, just not wired for it. But I do find myself heartened to know that some horribly written garbage is selling. It doesn't mean that I can write any worse, or slack on something, but it gives me hope that I can actually succeed.

[David Terrenoire]

First, there but for the grace of a good editor, go I. Not everything I've written has been embraced as genius. Shocking, I know.

Second, we're all struggling, so if I know it's a first novel, I'll cut the author some slack.

Third, I'm with Jude on this. Life is too short to read bad novels for fun. I just finished a truly bad book written by a well-respected author in the genre, and it just annoyed me and made me wonder what the hell happened.

Finally, it saddens me when bad writing finds a good home because that's one less slot for hard-working and talented writers who deserve the break.

[I. J. Parker]

I toss a lot of books. Quickly. For any number of reasons ranging from their being boring to bad grammar, and from being too formulaic to specializing in male-bashing and similar unfair attacks on whole groups of people. The "good" or "bad" thing is too often in the eye of the beholder.

[Laura Root]

Agree about the "eye of the beholder". Sometimes a writer's talent is in providing an entertaining, speedy if some what psychologically implausible read, rather than gritty noir.

[Julie Lomoe]

Interesting responses so far - thanks for your thoughts. For those who say life's too short to read bad books, I agree, and I confess I haven't picked up this book again, and may never finish it - just too painful. I was reading it last Saturday while sitting on the grass in the sun at a county fairgrounds for Country Fest, an eight-hour country music extravaganza. I'd brought it on purpose for light-weight reading between acts, but I don't think the circumstances made me less lenient - on the contrary, I was in a fine mood throughout.

I also agree with those who said reading critically like this can be a learning experience on what not to do, what works and what doesn't. Pundits always advise to read widely and analyse how authors achieve their effects, but when I'm swept up in reading a good book, I don't stop to think about how the author does it.

Now I'm off to hear the Duke Ellington orchestra, conducted by Duke's grandson, at the Empire State Plaza in Albany. Our region is overflowing with wonderful music in the summertime, and my tastes are eclectic.