An apology letter

Dear avid readers of my 111 project,

This is an apology letter. You might be wondering what I have to apologize for. Well don't worry, I'm getting ready to explain, probably with more detail than you ever wanted.

You see, it has come to my attention recently that I have become... wait for it... a book snob. A huge book snob! Might as well change the name of my blog to Snobby's 111 in 11. Ok, I'm getting carried away. Back to the point.

I realized the full horror of my snobbery as was reading a new Nicholas Sparks book, The Choice, and I was really enjoying it.

But, as I was reading, I found myself thinking, what am I going to say about this in my blog? How is the character development? Are the characters too stereotypical? There's good plot development, but what about the lack of originality in the plot and setting? And on, and on, and on with my boring English major terms.

To clarify, I actually like thinking analytically about books. I like all those boring literary terms. And I like discussing them in relation to books, which is one reason I started book blogging.

HOWEVER: I realized while thinking about The Choice, that I have actually used my love of literary analysis stomp out my love of something more much more valuable to me- my love of READING.

In other words, if I enjoy reading something, then I should just let myself enjoy it instead of going through and pointing out how it just isn't literary genius, and this and that is wrong with it.

I think I've been ashamed to admit that I enjoy something so simple as Nicholas Sparks, afraid that people will judge me and think I am a shallow reader with no real literary knowledge or some nonsense like that, so I've been justifying my love of these books by saying things like "I enjoyed this book BUT it's no literary genius or anything," or "BUT it's shallow and predictable" or something like that. When really, I've just plain enjoyed it.

So that, my friends, is how I've become a book snob. And let me tell you, it ends TODAY. Because right now, I'm going to tell you my honest to goodness opinion of Nicholas Sparks' book, The Choice.

Here it is: I REALLY LIKED IT! I was drawn in right away. It had all those great things that I'm beginning to love about Sparks' books: the quaint small towns with the slow pace of life, likeable characters, lovable pets, and of course, a beautiful love story. Plus this one had a good little twist, and I had no idea how it was going to end. Which means, it was impossible to stop reading! I did have a few problems with it, the biggest one being the morality of some choices the characters made in the middle of the story. Now I sound like a prude! I've gone from snob to prude! But seriously, I don't want to spoil the plot for you, but I do feel like parts of the book were saying that anything is excusable if you are in love. I do not agree, but it was a minor part of the story, so I guess it's all good.

So anyway, there you have it, the former literary snob admitting love for some good old Nicholas Sparks. Please accept my humblest apologies for my snobbery.

Sincerely,

Holly