There is such a thing as a bad book

If you want to write a book, fergodsakes write a good one and not something like this:

I read the first two or three chapters [...]. If I can then skip to the last two pages of the novel, and they make perfect sense, it is a poorly written book.

Why would I waste my time reading the 200-250 pages in the middle if the first two chapters and the ending tell me the entire story?

Taken from Bill Thompson, "Unscientific Method of Identifying a Bad Book" (April 20, 2006).