Three Bad Book Trends For Which We Have The Noughties To Thank

First, and it must be said, this list is largely tongue-in-cheek. If you want to be really depressed, I recommend Time's 10 Worst Things About The Worst Decade Ever. After that slideshow, I sort of lost enthusiasm for listing the 10 worst books I read, because I probably didn't even bother reading the worst books of the decade and the rest weren't, I don't know, life-alteringly bad.

Contrarianism: Up is down! Left is right! Sometimes there are black swans! I can't deny enjoying several of the nonfiction books I read this decade that sought to challenge or overturn the conventional wisdom -- I even liked FREAKONOMICS when I read it -- but the further into the Noughties we got, the more, shall I say, predictable the entries became. I participated in the indignant uproar over, for example, Chris Anderson's FREE with its shadowboxing with reason and its annoying tendency to use the title as a proper noun ("Free wants your love, and Free wants your revenge" -- not actually a direct quote). But I didn't much enjoy it. One recent and welcome exception: Cristina Nehring's A VINDICATION OF LOVE. And if I ever have the time to write a proper entry again, I'll gladly tell you why.

Memoir skepticism: Just as we have all absorbed the news that pop stars can get their voices fixed in post-production to the extent that they are incapable of performing their own songs live, so this decade caused us to doubt any true story that fell into our laps. I haven't read A MILLION LITTLE PIECES, and now I probably never will, but I still felt duped when James Frey sat on Oprah's couch and tried to look contrite. Life was better before I scoured acknowledgments for mentions of "composite" characters (FAKE people) or "condensed timelines" (FAKE series of events). Far sadder is knowing there are lives out there that don't need to be fixed to be incredible-but-true nonfiction. Welcome exceptions: Fiction authors who write purported memoirs that are completely fictional -- not new (one could argue Stein did it first) but a pleasant tonic nonetheless.

"Book Vs. Technology-Of-The-Week: There Can Only Be One!" stories: It's not good for journalism and its battle lines are completely fake. First, even the use of devices unrelated to reading isn't mutually exclusive with reading; no one's making me choose between my iPod and my library card. I'm not a linguist, but I'm fairly sure the creation of a hieroglyphic language didn't cause the Ancient Egyptians to stop talking to each other because they could just draw two reeds, a cane and an open palm instead. (COPYING ROSETTA STONE, BRB) On another level, I love to make fun of the Kindle and related devices, but if a person's reading on that, that's still reading. And I'm sure Kindle users still pick up a regular book from time to time. But maybe I feel that way because the Kindle and its ilk are nowhere close to replacing the mighty book. Maybe this story will have legs again in 10 years, but not before. Welcome exception: Infinite Summer and other projects that use blogs and Twitter to encourage, not stifle, conversation about books.