i’m reading a bestseller

I’m not going to say much about my own writing, but one thing I am confident enough to say is that I know good writing when I see it. Or in some cases, when I don’t. I haven’t read a purely commercial novel since probably Mitch Albom’s The Five People You Meet in Heaven, which might give you some idea of what I think about what I’m reading now.

It’s for a “book club” kind of thing. That’s all I have to say.

But I just can’t seem to turn off my writer’s brain and read it for the story. Because it is a best seller, after all, so there must be something to learn from it. There must be a good story or people wouldn’t read it, right? And when “normal” people discuss a novel, it will be the story that is discussed, not the writing. I keep forgetting that. I have become that much of a lit snob.