Need another book full of pithy platitudes from dead (or dying) people?

Well, this is your lucky holiday season.

http://www.harpercollins.com/books/?isbn=9780062294371


Fun Fact: Coldwater, described in the blurb as 'a small town on Lake Michigan,' in fact is more than 100 miles from the lake. Actually, it's closer to Lake Erie.

 

Landlines? Seriously?

 

I signed up for the texts.

 

Mitchie is a better writer than many of the people who get their asses licked on this site.

 

A pilot named Sully? He's not even trying.

 

Are we sure these calls are actually being made from heaven? Or are they calling from St. Louis?

 

10 times bigger douche bag, too. I think that's more the point.

 

What makes him a douche?
Because he writes treacle?
The same mush all of us have written at some point?
Is his ego any smaller than Chris Jones's?

 

Jones is a great writer, just self-destructively over-sensitive.

Who else gets licked herein-deservedly? Plashcke? Posnanski?

 

It would be more instructive to name the great writers never discussed here.
Jones writes to win awards.
He acts like his approach is so pure, but it clearly isn't.

 

Jones writes human-interest stories. Not my cup of tea these days, but not as writerly as some others, like Gary Smitg. I prefer a Jon Lee Anderson or Ryan Lizza or Sarah Stillman. Or even Michael Lewis. And many, many that write great pieces in relative anonymity. Deep reporting and minimalist writing in service of topics of importance.

 

Well, we agree on that.
A great writer stays out of the way, period.
Jones is hardly original.
He's freely admitted he's stolen ideas of others.
And then puts his own twist, or "engine," or whatever other pretentious term he would use, on it.