1. Joey Comeau analyzes five books you never want to see listed as a favorite on someone’s dating site.

His choices imply a libertine balance. He thinks anything by Ayn Rand and the Bible are red flags. (I couldn’t get through Atlas Shrugged with a thirty-aught-six, but the Bible has some lovely literature in it. Regardless of religion, I think everyone should read Ecclesiastes.)

He rightfully warns people of The Notebook. Comeau’s take: This is either the kind of (expletive deleted) guy who puts Nicholas Sparks on his profile to seem sensitive, or the kind of (expletive deleted) girl who falls for it.

I’d be nervous about anyone who likes Sweet Valley High or Kerouac. Also, it’s cool like to comics. (No, it is. Samuel L. Jackson said so at Comicon.) But I wouldn’t categorize “anything Batman” as one of my favorites.

2. Mental_floss lists seven things you might not know about Dr. Seuss.

Favorite fact: Seuss worked the word “contraceptive” into the original text of Hop on Pop to make sure his editor read it.

3. Apparently, people hate The Giving Tree.

What a shock. People don’t understand the concept of altruism.

4. Apparently, it’s Roald Dahl day or month or something. In honor of that, Philip Ardagh lists his ten favorite Dahl books. (My favorite, BFG, barely made the list.)

5. Speaking of Jane Austen (we’re always speaking of Jane Austen,) the Austen Fiction Manuscripts Project allows us to read Austen’s handwritten manuscripts. The site doesn't have her best known stuff (Emma, Pride and Prejudice) uploaded but it does have Persuasion.

-Jason Lea, JLea@News-Herald.com

Who is Nicholas Sparks kidding?

During his co-interview with Miley Cyrus for USA Today, Sparks claims to be from the lineage of Ernest Hemingway and slams Cormac McCarthy.

He also says his favorite coming-of-age story is A Walk to Remember, which he wrote.

Let’s begin by noting what Sparks got right.

“I don’t write romance novels.” His preferred terminology: “Love stories — it’s a very different genre ... (Romances) are all essentially the same story: You’ve got a woman, she’s down on her luck, she meets the handsome stranger who falls desperately in love with her, but he’s got these quirks, she must change him, and they have their conflicts, and then they end up happily ever after.”

Sparks wants to differentiate himself from the writers of bodice rippers. Fair enough. Sparks doesn’t churn out almost identical variations on a single plot. Sure, he has key themes that he revisits — death, love — but all authors do.

OK, score one for Nicholas Sparks. But things soon veer off the rails. First, he compares himself to Hemingway.

“A Farewell to Arms, by Hemingway. Good stuff. That’s what I write,” (Sparks) says. “That’s what I write.”

Then, he takes a shot at McCarthy.

“Horrible,” he says, looking at Blood Meridian. “This is probably the most pulpy, overwrought, melodramatic cowboy vs. Indians story ever written.”

Finally, Sparks calls A Walk to Remember his favorite tale of youth, though he credits The Catcher in the Rye as “an all-time classic.” (Bonus fact: Miley Cyrus’s favorite book is Catcher. Vegas odds on that — 1.001:1. Just once I want to hear a 17-year-old say their favorite book is Tess of the d’Urbervilles.)

I’ve never read Blood Meridian, so I can’t criticize Sparks’s opinion. He may be right, and I wouldn’t defend McCarthy just because of his reputation. Writers are entitled to their opinions. If those opinion are iconoclastic, so be it. McCarthy previously criticized Henry James and Marcel Proust by saying, “To me, that’s not literature.”

However, I have read A Farewell to Arms. I’ve also read A Walk to Remember. And, no, Mr. Sparks, that is not what you do. That is what you try to do. I admire Gay Talese and aspire to write like him. That doesn’t mean we do the same thing.

If anything, Sparks seems resentful that his commercial success has cost him critical acceptance. If true, I understand the resentment. Sparks should not be lumped in with Harlequin novelists. But, if he wants critical accolades, he would be better off not insulting Pulitzer winners or writing Miley Cyrus vehicles.

-Jason Lea, JLea@News-Herald.com

This blog entry likely contains spoilers.

I really don't like Nicholas Sparks. The best reason I can figure for always picking up his novels are that I want to read something that won't take too long, or I need to have a good cry. Yes, I don't like Nicholas Sparks' books but cry at them anyway.

This weekend I saw "Dear John", so I figured I would spell out my feelings about the book and the movie and the way I think the story should have been told. (More on my thoughts on the movie on Tuned in to Pop Culture.)

"Dear John" is about a Special Forces soldier named John, who on leave meets beautiful Savannah. The two fall in love quickly. He returns to Army life, re-enlists after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and she breaks his heart by writing him a "Dear John" letter to tell him she is engaged. Bet you couldn't have figured out any of that just from the title of the book, right?

What the summary on Nicholas Sparks' Web site leaves out is really the best story in the novel: John has a strained relationship with his father, which Savannah is able to explain to him. Her words are hard for him to hear, but they help him understand why things are the way they are and give him the opportunity to improve on them.

Here is the problem with Nicholas Sparks. He has a great opportunity to tell an incredibly emotional story about a troubled father-son relationship, but he instead emphasizes the silly self-centered girl who gets angry that John wants to re-commit to the Army after the country was attacked by terrorists. Really?

I didn't want to like this book because I don't want to like Nicholas Sparks. I fell in love with the story he told about John and his dad. I am angry that Nicholas Sparks can't tell a story that doesn't involve some sort of endless, impossible, we-should-be-together-but-we-can't-be love story. Maybe that's because his stories are catered to the casual reader, and I suppose I can't fault someone for getting people to read when there several distractions exist. But I'm just never happy with the entirety of his books. Either the falling in love part takes too long, or the ending isn't what I wanted, or the plot twist makes me mad.

I talked with my boyfriend today about my favorite Nicholas Sparks' books and movies. My favorite book by far is "A Walk to Remember", which I read in one night during my junior year of high school. He pointed out that maybe the reason it was my favorite was because it was the first Nicholas Sparks book I had read. Maybe one was enough and I should never have picked up another. But I'm sure I'll do it again. (My favorite movie is "The Notebook", and that may only be because of the final scene with the old people. I just can't handle old people crying.)


-- Cheryl Sadler
CSadler@News-Herald.com