The worst book I ever read
{0.5/5} The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield is not just a bestseller but a megabestseller. That is absolutely mind boggling to me, as it’s the worst book I ever read. If I were to read it now for the first time there’s no way I would finish it.
The quality of the writing is shockingly poor. It was first self published, but even if you’re going to self publish your book you should still get it edited.
The book is structured as a novel, but the author pays very little attention to the story. It’s just a way to present his ideas — if you’re not going to make the story interesting, just write it as nonfiction.
The first few ideas are fairly obvious ones but they eventually progress to ones that I just don’t buy. People do not have auras — I cannot believe that.
I realize that many other people had a different experience with this book than I did, but I find it baffling — about as baffling as most people’s reaction to Star Wars Episode III (which I loathed).
To contrast with another megabestseller, I loved The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown. Some people claim that it’s poorly written, but I certainly didn’t notice that. I couldn’t put it down — I thought the ideas were fascinating. There’s one thing you have to make sure you do with The DaVinci Code and that is notice that the spine says “fiction.” Some people have been fooled into thinking that parts of the book are real when they’re not — that’s the aspect I don’t like. But the story was great — clever, exciting, and suspenseful.
So why was The Celestine Prophecy such a success? Kenneth Moyle has a thought on that: