Colin McEnroe Show: The Era Of Bad Books
Are we living in the era of trashy stories and bad writing?
Published: Jul 14, 2010
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Rand Richards Cooper
Photo:Chion Wolf
Gina Barreca
Photo:Chion Wolf
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Colin McEnroe Show: Era Of Bad Books?
In the summer of 2007, as I was churning through the 759 pages of the final installment of the Harry Potter series, I found myself asking: Is this in any sense a good book?
Would I be reading this book if I had not already made a commitment to the series? Does the author seem in control of the plot and the characters? Is the prose itself admirable? And the answers came back to me no, no, no, no, and no.
The book seemed to me like something other than a book -- part of an experience media theorists sometimes describe as "groupiness," the experience of consuming content mainly for the purpose of sharing with others, as opposed to a direct exchange between you and the author.
On the other hand, as J.K. Rowling touched off an explosion of reading among young people, it seemed peevish to complain about the actual writing or the merit of the books.
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I doubt very much that the Lost Symbol or the Da Vinci Code will emerge 100 years from now as great literature.
-Rand Cooper
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Bad Books
I enjoyed yesterday's show. I waited for speculation relating the reading of these books to a lack of critical thinking in all areas. I am thinking of this week's interview with Peter Schiff where he asserted many ideas with, in many instances, flawed thinking. If one person can capture the public imagination like this, how does it reflect what is taught in schools, specifically english literature, and what we read.E-mail from Robert
I love listening to your show! I am a Massachusetts resident, but I drive through CT frequently and I'm always trying to catch your show whenever possible. I started reading the Harry Potter series just after the fourth film came out. I was in college and found myself reading Harry more than my textbooks! I have since become a teacher in MA (middle school) and have noticed a trend of kids who don't normally read starting to pick up books like Twilight and Harry Potter. While I know that they are not the greatest literature out there, at least kids are reading! Concerning Twilight, I won't read the series myself. I don't like Stephenie Meyer's writing at all, so I find no incentive to pick up the series. With Harry Potter, I found that the first five books were very well written and charming. The sixth book showed J.K.'s need to tie some things together in order to finish the series and as a result, the writing suffered. With the seventh book, I found I had to re-read some of the action scenes a few times over in order to sift through the confusion of the writing. I think that J.K. was under lots of pressure to get the book out and the language and structure of the book suffered immensely. I feel that the editors should have spent a little more time proofreading and clarifying the action scenes rather than pushing the book out the door to make the most money. I do have to say that I did enjoy all of the Harry Potter series even though there are major problems with the last book. Keep up the great work! I look forward to hearing more the next time I'm in CT. - RobertE-mail from Jack
I've never read a single word that Dan Brown or J.K. Rowling has written, but I will confess to having read all of the late Robert B. Parker's "Spenser" novels. In the early days, they were tightly written and entertaining. Toward the end, they were formulaic, poorly crafted, and provided entertainment primarily through their dreadfulness.Post new comment