To Infinity And Beyond

#408,826. The Amazon sales ranking of a book written by a self-proclaimed funny and talented author who called in every favor by every blogger who'd sit still long enough to be begged to, in order to generate SOME sales. I was sent a copy (not by the author but by someone asking me to give it a look), and did something quite unusual for a lover of books. Dragged myself through several pages then tossed it in the trash. I'd most likely have at least tried wading through the whole thing were it not for the dislike I have for egotists who have little talent. It's okay to be vain if you're good. Still creepy but at least there's the excuse of genius getting in the way of good manners. Not so for this effort. Picture the thousand monkeys on the thousand typewriters, very early on in their attempt to create something readable.

Posting this because the email of the acquaintance who sent me the book is no longer operative and there was no other way to say thank you. There. I feel better already. I always imagine the worst when suddenly losing touch with someone and that comes from communicating over the years with people who'd suddenly up and die a lot. Here's hoping this isn't the case but it colored my review of the book anyways because it'd be bad theater to go into a long rant about some talentless hack then discover that the person who asked you to give the talentless hack a read is no longer with us.

So if you're not dead but just changed emails and didn't bother to tell me, thanks again for the effort. If you are dead, then what a waste of your time and money to bother mailing this piece of trash. If you are dead and the dead have email, then drop me a line. If you are dead and the dead don't have email, when then that sucks but you're excused for not getting back in touch.