When authors attack

Scribe Written on July 03, 2009

alice-1 vvincent02

I’ve written four books, and all of them have received some very good reviews and some fairly terrible reviews.

It comes with the territory of subjectiveness. This isn’t mathematics, where an equation either works or doesn’t. Reactions to writing are 100-percent opinion. Some love, some hate, some are indifferent. It is what it is.

That said, I hate—hate—hostile reviews. I haven’t received many (knock, knock), but when in doubt (or when you’re feeling unjustifiably cocky) go to Amazon, where everyone is free to post their own. Among the dandies about my work:

Was this written by a high school student?, April 16, 2009

By	J. D. Wooden (Colorado) - See all my reviews

I’m very surprised to get such a badly written story from Jeff Pearlman. Maybe he should stick to short articles in Sports Illustrated…
It doesn’t matter what your opinions are on Roger Clemens or the state of MLB, this book was badly written, extremely ambiguous, the author drew conclusions from unrelated evidence and conjecture, used personal opinions and generalizations as facts (sometimes even when the information was obviously false or disputable), and from paragraph to paragraph the author would contradict his own opinions and statements. I wouldn’t recommend anyone spend money on this book.
Conversely, as a fan of baseball I did appreciate “reliving” The Rockets life, career, ups and downs, and some of MLBs biggest moments. Pearlman obviously hates Roger Clemens, which is fine: it’s his opinion and his book, I respect that. But basically the author took advantage of an opportunity to bad mouth a person (and then turn around and celebrate him at times… hmm).
In conclusion, I also hate steriods in pro sports, I hate cheaters, but I also hate bad writing. Don’t waste your money, just go Google the stats and stories.

•••

weak, October 8, 2008

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This article is also featured on http://jeffpearlman.com

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written on July 03, 2009 Sports

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