I have pretty catholic (with a small "c," naturally) tastes, but the only Irving I've read was The Hotel New Hampshire, and I wasn't overly impressed. I do, however, agree that you needn't set your standards all that high before you decide to write something. Writing for publication is one thing, but I've written a lot that isn't great. Heck, even my movie reviews, which are online for all to see, are things that generally take me half an hour tops to write; every once in a while, when I'm reading back over them, I have to go fix typos. Heck, I own the complete set of Quantum Leap novels, and some of those are very bad.

Entertainment is important, yes. I read a lot of nonfiction, too, but I've stopped reading a fair amount because of dryness of style.

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"