My friend James has the best shirt – I’ve actually tried to steal it twice (I “borrowed” it once after my own shirt got a coffee stain, but he came to my house and stole it back!) and it lists a bunch of Shakespearean insults.
But when I ran across this article the other day, I was so excited – you don’t often hear about authors insulting each other!
Here’s the link to “The 50 Best Author vs. Author Put-Downs of All Time“
And here’s some of my favorites:
7. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, according to Nathaniel Hawthorne (1851)
Bulwer nauseates me; he is the very pimple of the age’s humbug. There is no hope of the public, so long as he retains an admirer, a reader, or a publisher.
9. J.K. Rowling, according to Harold Bloom (2000)
How to read ‘Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone’? Why, very quickly, to begin with, and perhaps also to make an end. Why read it? Presumably, if you cannot be persuaded to read anything better, Rowling will have to do.
12. John Milton’s Paradise Lost, according to Samuel Johnson
‘Paradise Lost’ is one of the books which the reader admires and lays down, and forgets to take up again. None ever wished it longer than it is.
And here’s the second part of the Put Downs.
This is great! My favorite coffee mug has Shakespeare insults all over it, but it is always interesting to hear what other authors think of each other’s work (esp. when it’s negative, because you’re right, we don’t hear that as much).
On a side note, I love your blog’s banner. Is the photo taken from your own bookshelf? I saw an article once talking about using books as a design element in your house, and it had a photo of a large bookcase full of bright books arranged by color, like yours, and I thought it was so eye-catching. Wish I’d bookmarked that article.