hmm
Hurrah for horror that's not Stephen King. I personally loved Richard Laymon's books - unsettling and slightly scary, but mostly they were just completely over-the top gruesome, and incredibly fun to read.

"You arguing that it is, actually, good tends just to highlight your media whoreishness: Dan Brown, Rowling, the bible etc"

I'd disagree here. I've enjoyed all the Harry Potter books. Yes, they have some obviously lifted elements, and yes, there are better-written books out there, but these stories captured my imagination enough that I was out at midnight with a bunch of friends on the release dates to buy the most recent two. That's a sign of good books, that they inspire that much enjoyment in their audience.

I'd agree with you that media attention can get a lot of people to read a bad book too - I read the DaVinci code and have been grateful ever since that I borrowed it instead of buying it. The story was tat and, whilst it had the potential to be mindlessly diverting, the quality of the writing was such that on numerous occasions I actually dropped out of my reader's trance and noticed how clumsy it was, which is a cardinal sin to my way of looking at things.
( Mockingbird Practitioner of SCIENCE, Tue 20 May 2008, 9:16, Reply)