One unexpected result of going all in on the new bestsellers is that I'm noticing even more than before how cynical the book trade is. 

Now, this doesn't come as a surprise. I do believe all the arts are infected by commercialism (the horror!), pirating, plagiarizing on a grand scale, misdirection, and so on. 

But up to now, I've been able to avoid the worst examples. I ignored most celebrity books, most political books, most self-help books. I've avoided most books that I knew and/or suspected were ghostwritten.

A particularly notable (egregious) example is the new #1 bestseller by Michael Crichton and James Patterson. (Now there's a couple to ponder on.)

Here's the thing. I'm pretty sure that everything Crichton had ever set to paper has already been published. I read Dragon Teeth, published after his death, and it was barely a book. Meandering, paper-thin characters, disjointed. 

So my feeling is that the Crichton's pantry had already been raided, emptied of anything usable. I suspect the genesis of this new book was a tiny scrap of paper in the corner of the pantry on which was scribbled, "Hawaii explodes."

I admit, an interesting idea. But the world is full of interesting ideas, but most of them get no coverage unless they are written by already well-known authors. 

Well, nothing to do but order the damn book. Not for me to judge what other people read, me but to do as they will.