Problem Books II

Of the second variety of worrisome books, I have little to say. There is nothing wrong with an engaging, light, and fully entertaining read. I will admit that in many ways I enjoyed Dan Brown's The DaVinci Code (please don't loose your confidence in me for this admittance!). The philosophy that the work stands behind is quite fantastic and challenging, even if it is presented so seamlessly and sweetly that it all seems nearly unremarkable. In sum, I liked the book tremendously.........but for its overwhelming qualities of a screenplay. I almost wondered, what with all of the cliffhangers and mini-episodes, why the 'book' wasn't written as a movie script to begin with (or was it?). I do find this quality worrisome, because one does not so readily become a part of the author's world so much as they do the action and suspense. And I find action and suspense to be generic in most cases. Moving on to other works that occupy precious space on the shelves of libraries and bookstores and that often end up on some bestseller list (mind you this is not a bad thing, especially for the author!), it is what I sense as a lack of personal development on the parts of so many writers. When I read their works, an imaginary pen in my mind moves to draw red slash marks, circles, x's, and other editorial marks when I read their works. So many books ought not to be 350 pages, ought not to be even 3 pages. So many of these stories required much more living and far less writing. Which naturally brings me back to Coelho.