We made it! It’s the final week of this trainwreck of a year. To celebrate I’m going to talk about lots of books I read this year throughout the final days of 2020. First, I’m talking about the books that don’t deserve a second reading. Ever.
What were some of the worst reads for you this year?
AND HIS NAME IS JOHN CENA! š
I really can’t resist any opportunity to type that out. I don’t think y’all find it nearly as entertaining as I do. But meh.
The real person Patterson is co writing a book with is President Clinton. No, this isn’t an alternate universe in which Hillary actually won. It’s Bill. Bill Clinton and James Patterson are writing a book together. Welp.
The quality of Patterson’s work is what it is. I simply don’t see how this would do anything to change that. Bill Clinton has never written a novel. But Patterson does whatever he possibly can to sell as many books as he can. This appears to fall in line with the things he’s done before.
Do you have any interest in a book written by President Clinton and James Patterson? I know I don’t.
I KNOW some of y’all will love every minute of this. Now watch! What else do I need to say?
When I quit my job at Half Price Books recently I had a tough choice to make. I could either buy all of the books I wanted before my employee discount was no longer valid or I could just forget about them. I of course chose to buy.
This is the result. There were so many I couldn’t get them all in the picture for the thumbnail. Ha!
Now watch! It’s super quick!
We have a running joke at the store about James Patterson whenever the person running the mystery or paperback sections gets a little mouthy. That we’ll buy ALL the James Patterson. It’s funny because it basically happens already.
But summer is our busiest time of the year and now we’ve hit a snag. We’re low on Patterson! Ha! In our daily meetings we’ve been told to buy more Patterson (and a few other authors) because we’re very low on his books. Welp. Some things you just don’t expect to hear.
But to my knowledge, Janet Evanovich and John Grisham are still crowding our shelves. *sigh*
I told y’all about Patterson’s plan to write these short books to be priced below $5 and aimed to be read in just a couple of hours. I think the first ones released this week and the reviews have not been kind. I won’t be buying these but I’ve gathered people don’t like the format. The first one stars Alex Cross, Patterson’s flagship character, but the book simply has no ending. At least that’s what I’ve read. Which leads me to believe there will be a continuation of the story in a future BookShot or one of his novels. But no one wants to read a book with no ending.
Thoughts?
TheĀ LA TimesĀ Festival of Books was this past weekend. It’s one of the most popular and anticipated book festivals in the country. There was a little of just about everything.
I’m not really interested in the awards that were havded out. Except for James Patterson’s. I’ve already written about it on here, but the reason I want to talk about it again is because he gave a speech at the awards gala. He talked about his BookShots project I’ve also already written about. I didn’t get to see his entire speech, but I did see some. And I still just don’t know why he (or his publisher) think these books are going to get people to somehow enjoy books.
I understand that he’s done a lot of things as an author and many of those things have proven very lucrative, but this just isn’t adding up for me. People who don’t read, DON’T READ. They don’t care how many times you say the book is like reading a movie. They don’t care how many pages the book has. And they don’t care who’s writing the books. I don’t know if everyone involved in this is clueless or arrogant.
This is like a beer or drink company proclaiming they’ve come up with the drink to get EVERYONE drinking, even people like me who refuse to drink alcohol for any reason.
I’ll end with a question for Patterson and the team behind this new project. What evidence do you have that these books will be bought by anyone besides Patterson’s regular readers? I’d love to know.
We all know someone or several people who will not read. They make excuses or say that books are old fashioned. Heck, you wouldn’t believe how many people walk into my HPB and say they can’t believe people still read books. It’s one of those things I can only akwardky laugh at. Because it’s a ridiculous statement.
Anyway, James Patterson has all those people in his sights with his forthcoming BookShots. BookShots (don’t know where the name came from) will be his way of getting those people reading. How? By writing shorter, more plot driven books that are meant to be read in one sitting. The books will be less than 150 pages and cheaper than $5. The aim is to publish 2-4 of these each month. And also to get these books into stores that don’t typically sell books anymore.
Now I have no problem with him trying to get as many people reading as he can, but I would like to remind Mr. Patterson of something. Other bestselling authors already do this with things like Kindle Singles. And those are generally priced between $0.99-$2.99. So I’m just skeptical that this will actually get people reading. And I honestly think Patterson’s name is both good and bad for this. It’s good because there’s no doubt in my mind that people who read his other work will read these. It’s bad because those who don’t, won’t.
What I think will ultimately happen is he’ll keep selling a ridiculous number of books because he’s simply got the math on his side. But I don’t really see his attempt at reviving the dime novel being any more successful than that.
What do you think of Patterson’s BookShots? Destined for success? Failure?
Cue the eye rolls from everyone reading. James Patterson will be given the Innovator’s Award at the 36thĀ LA TimesĀ Book Prizes this year. Now these awards aren’t exactly on par with winning a Pulitzer or Nobel or National Book Award, but I imagine any author nominated would be extremely proud and satisfied.
The people behind these awards likely know books and writing better than the average reader. Which is why I think people should take note when things like this happen. Everyone wants to make Patterson out to be this bad guy in publishing. But no one thinks about how many millions of kids are reading his young adult series. No one thinks about how many kids had no interest in reading before picking up one of his books. All everyone sees is money, and that’s just ridiculous.
I know some people will find this news to be laughable, but I don’t. I think he’s highly deserving. He gets kids reading. There’s no denying it.
What do you think of Patterson being honored by theĀ LA Times?
The second book I crossed off my 2016 Reading Challenge was a book written by James Patterson. And I chose a book I hadn’t read before and one that isn’t a part of any of his many series. I also chose it because it was written all the way back in 1976 and won the Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for the best first novel by an American writer. This is an award that some literary giants have won in the past, and Patterson is forever among them.
I think that’s all I have for you before the video. I do think you’ll want to watch the whole thing because it almost morphs into a rant. And who doesn’t like rants, right? You also find out which book I’m reading next for my challenge. Now watch!
PS: I finished my edits on the video a couple of hours before this post went up, but I’m not sure exactly how long they’ll take to complete. So don’t yell at me if they aren’t finished when you watch.
Johnny Reads 