So bad I took notes...

Moon Over Manhattan, by Larry King of CNN fame. Wow. I was stuck on a four hour flight and it was the only book I brought with me. I began taking notes in the margin. It was truly the worst book I've ever read. I must say I learned a lot about writing fiction from reading it, however.

I think it was Kingsley Amis who was famous for talking at books as he read them. "Oh, really? I doubt it." "He wouldn't have said that." "Come now, is that the best you can do."

I like that.

gregtmills -

I've done that from time to time. I'm more likely to talk at the tv, but I've done it with a few books, too. Sometimes it's at the characters/what happens in the book/the plot, and other times it is - like you're talking about - at the writing.

I've responded to notes written in the margins of books, usually to correct the bad grammar or spelling errors.

(I use post-its, though. I can't write in library books.)

I like the use of post-its in library books. It sounds almost rabbinical, like commentary on the Mishneh Torah or something. Only it's not the torah, it's like "The Bridges of Madison County" on tape, or something.

(Question: is it considered a mitzvah to return library books early?)

Only if someone else is on the waiting list for it.

My library has a new system where you get a receipt of the books you checked out instead of the little yellow card with the return date stamped on it. In a book I recently checked out, the receipt from the previous borrower was still in the book, and I found he checked out many of the same books I did. It got me wondering about collecting those to map out.

-->5 gregtmills: I can't believe you mentioned the "book" on the top (or is it the bottom) of my list of awfuls: The Bridges of Madison County. I was utterly insulted yesterday when I read a review here comparing On Chesil Beach to it. As if!