Book reviews have become increasingly important in this age of self-publishing. My webmaster asked me to shorten Tom Henry’s Amazon reviews for this website and, while doing this task, I came across a delightful blog on bad reviews of good books.
So far Tom Henry has only garnered good reviews—friends and family first, you know—so I thought I’d write this blog before I get the bad reviews I’m sure are coming, at which time this blog might appear to be sour grapes. I’ve captured a few I really like, but I include the link below so you can read the rest.
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (1961)
“Obviously, a lot people were smoking a lot of weed in the ’60s to think this thing is worth reading.”
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (1951)
“So many other good books…don’t waste your time on this one. J.D. Salinger went into hiding because he was embarrassed.”
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (1939)
“While the story did have a great moral to go along with it, it was about dirt! Dirt and migrating. Dirt and migrating and more dirt.”
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925)
“It grieves me deeply that we Americans should take as our classic a book that is no more than a lengthy description of the doings of fops.”
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien (1954)
“The book is not readable because of the overuse of adverbs.”
On the Road by Jack Kerouac (1957)
“This book gets my nomination for the most overrated book in American Literature. It is trite, saccharine and false…. In short, I despise this piece of garbage.”
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner (1929)
“This book is like an ungrateful girlfriend. You do your best to understand her and get nothing back in return.”
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (1960)
“I don’t see why this book is so fabulous. I would give it a zero. I find no point in writing a book about segregation, there’s no way of making it into an enjoyable book.”
I’ll end with the longest but probably the best:
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway (1926)
“Here’s the first half of the book: ‘We had dinner and a few drinks. We went to a cafe and talked and had some drinks. We ate dinner and had a few drinks. Dinner. Drinks. More dinner. More drinks. We took a cab here (or there) in Paris and had some drinks, and maybe we danced and flirted and talked about somebody. More dinner. More drinks. I love you, I hate you …’ ”
Here’s the link, so you can read them all: http://www.themorningnews.org/article/lone-star-statements
Thank you for viewing my blog. Please return often. I value your comments.
Regards,
David Hendricks