I picked up a couple books last week to fill my time while hubbie’s out of town. One was the Search for Fierra, The (EMPYRION) by Stephen Lawhead. The other was The five people you meet in heaven by Mitch Albom.

The first is a ‘christian’ sci-fi athor. The book was OK – writing kinda stunk in some places – some clichéd phrases, plot was decent, nothing too innovative, but I do want to find out how it ends.

I’ve heard tons of raves about The Five People You Meet in Heaven. I wasn’t impressed. I was hoping for a good story but all I got was the author spelling it all out for me. Am I alone thinking that a good writer doesn’t have to painstaikingly explain every single little point she or he is trying to make? I don’t like being preached at when I’m expecting a good story, so I put the book down and will be returning it to the library soon.

There is a sort of book where it’s OK to spell out your points. Fiction isn’t one of them. I think it was in Stephen King’s Hearts in Atlantis where a character says something along the lines of “When you read a book you are putting yourself into it, and the book is putting itself into you. If the book’s not giving back after 20 pages or so, put it down.” I can’t remember the exact quote, but you get the idea. I got to page 60 in The Five People… before I put it down – should have done so earlier. (And seeing some reviews on amazon, I’m not the only one.)

I guess the point of this is: never waste time on a poorly written book.