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"The Da Vinci Code" actually translates to "The Of Vinci Code." Which makes no sense. Score one for Dan Brown.
Because they’re just as useful, if not more so, than good books in learning how to write well. See also: How To Write Badly Well.
Because, even if you can’t actually learn anything about writing from them, they can still be a boon to your self-esteem as a writer by comparison.
Because they can (sometimes) be unabashedly guilty pleasures. See also: the Twilight series, The Time Traveler’s Wife, The Notebook, anything by Dan Brown.
Because they can be a wonderful source of unintentional humor. See also: Dan Brown’s 20 Worst sentences. This made me laugh for about twenty minutes:
18. The Da Vinci Code, chapter 4: He could taste the familiar tang of museum air – an arid, deionized essence that carried a faint hint of carbon – the product of industrial, coal-filter dehumidifiers that ran around the clock to counteract the corrosive carbon dioxide exhaled by visitors.
Ah, that familiar tang of deionised essence.
Because they can inspire dozens of better-written and far more entertaining parodies and responses. See also: Mark Reads Twilight (So You Don’t Have To), the Harvard Lampoon’s Nightlight, Kevin Pereira & Olivia Munn’s Twilight Spoof.
Because, if the bad book in question is popular enough, it’s the literary equivalent of a sports team. People say the arts suffer because it lacks the social aspect of sports. But when it comes to miraculously popular bad books, suddenly hundreds of thousands of readers rally together to either support or make fun of the bad book. For some reason, popular good books don’t seem to have quite the same effect.
What are some of your favorite bad books?
Thanks so much for the link to How to Write Badly Well. So hilarious. I couldn’t stop laughing, and it was actually more instructive than half the serious how-to-write-well type books I’ve read …
Oh yes!
Crappy books make me angry, positive angry – if there’s such a thing. The kind of angry that makes you get off your butt and do something about it. If their crappy writing can get published, then why the heck shouldn’t my crappy writing get published, and eventually maybe some of my less-crappy and almost-good writing?!
A personal favourite is “Bad Monkeys” by Matt Ruff.
Only thing is, when I reread my own books, much of the writing seesm just as crappy!
Oh no! Read a Dan Brown book and THEN reread your book. You’ll feel better.
[...] couple of shoutouts. Thanks to a blog I like called LitDrift, I came across How to Write Badly Well. Besides making me laugh my pants off, it’s also a [...]
Sweet Valley High!!!!!
And now I think Diablo Cody is making a film about it…
so exciting!