alert i am a little harsh on the book although
Alert: I am a little harsh on the book. Although a story might be great, I do appreciate great delivery-vis-à-vis great writing. One peculiar pet peeve of mine is bad writing. Admittedly, I get a little antsy about authors who aren't ke…
- Date
- December 27, 2012
- Collection
- Journal
- Reading time
- 2 min read
- Type
- Essay
- Archive status
- Written by Fiifi
From the archive: Originally shared on 2012-12-27 through mrfiifiappiah. Language, links, and opinions reflect their original context.
Alert: I am a little harsh on the book.
Although a story might be great, I do appreciate great delivery-vis-à-vis great writing. One peculiar pet peeve of mine is bad writing. Admittedly, I get a little antsy about authors who aren’t keen on making art out of what they have to say.
Upon picking the book up from a local library, I was a little disappointed at first glance. As the popular adage goes: never judge a book by its cover- but I couldn’t resist. The book had a thick hardcover, reminiscent of children’s classic books. As a matter of fact, off-white cream leaflets and large font type is typical of a children’s classic and the book in itself doesn’t fall too short of its lookalike.
What hooked me on to continue reading the book after a disappointing first impression was the prologue of the book which mentioned the fact that Bill Clinton was seen reading the book.
What got me to searching for the book in the first place was a hear say review from an acquaintance who also showed me this video of Will Smith talking about the book.
It seemed like something worth reading (it is*)
To cut the author some slack, the book is translated from another language. Although I wouldn’t really buy that excuse after reading Frankenstein(which was also translated.) the story in the book seems to be a fable told from generation to generation via word of mouth- so it’s only fair that the book sounds primitively simple.
I must however applaud the book for its ability to create a motivating and enlightening experience even with its frivolous diction and story. The book has a central theme that resurfaces on every page (till a point where it almost begins to get annoying)
In the end, reading the book is an enlightening experience which will surely get any reader thinking about one’s own mission in life and how you are achieving or plan to achieve it.
