The Bookshelf

To publish anything – a book, an album, even a blog post – requires you to develop a pretty thick skin. Even a book as widely acclaimed as Cormac McCarthy’s The Road (probably the closest thing we’ve had to a Great American Novel in quite some time, and loved by Oprah and the Pulitzer committee alike) has its detractors. Over 1600 people on Goodreads have given the book 1 measly star.

So if a work as widely acclaimed as The Road isn’t safe from this kind of vitriol, where does that leave everyone else?

Mystery author Brad Meltzer has one approach. His most recent title, The Book of Lies, was just released in paperback. To celebrate, he’s compiled some of the choicest nuggets from his harshest reviews – but presents them in a way that makes you laugh rather than cringe:

Great stuff, and proof positive that when life gives you critics, you make … critic-ade. What about you? Are there any universally-loved books that you can’t stand? How about “awful” books that you love?