I Don’t Like Your Book

It was the heading for the e-mail. “I don’t like your book.”

The text repeated the sentiment. It said with the same directness and simplicity, “I don’t like your book.”

The message was “sent from awesome.”

Since I have a lot of books out there, my response was as simple and direct as the incoming e-mail. I wrote back and asked which book Awesome was referring to and why he didn’t like it. (Am I right to assume that, almost inevitably, Awesome is a he?)

Awesome responded. The book he referred to,...