Novelish

I took the bus downtown for an unrelated reason, and - being early - decided to stop at the public library’s main branch to get a few books. I already had plenty to read, but I hoped to find a few good ones. On entering the area, a banner for a spring book sale greeted me. (Hmm, I thought. Interesting.)

The library’s doors didn’t open for another ten minutes, but around a dozen people were already waiting - and rather more were in line for the book sale, which started at the same time and was through a nearby door. I decided to have a look.

And, guess what? Fictional books were among the cheapest items on the price list, at around $0.48 (USD). That includes the 900-page hardcover ones.

I could tell I was going to like this place.

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This book was a #1 New York Times bestseller.

It has a 4.5-star rating on Amazon, out of more than a thousand reviews.

Barnes & Noble reviewers give it a perfect 5, out of 750. (”This was the first romance book I actually liked!” one writes.)

Excuse me, but how the hell is this possible?

It’s obvious that there are a considerable number of Nicholas Sparks fans - so I may well regret saying this later on - but I think this is quite likely the most overrated piece of crap I’ve read in, like, ever.

I’ll try and list the reasons why. (Have you noticed that talking about books you don’t like is at least as much fun as talking about books you do? It is for me, at least.)

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