I came across this today. It’s a great post about putting negative reviews in perspective, but that’s not actually why I’m linking to it. If you read down to the section on one star reviews of various books, you’ll see that her research shows The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy has 11,212 one star reviews on Goodreads.
11,212? No! Say it ain’t so.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is easily one of my favorite books. I would happily stash it in my backpack as I prepared to be abandoned on a suitably deserted island for the rest of my life. I reread it regularly, and have since I first read it roughly 11,212 years ago. I can’t write a funny story to save my soul. Douglas Adams made it seem effortless. (He also wrote a book called Last Chance to See, which was, I believe, a companion to a series he was in, and that book is heartbreaking, rather than funny, all about his travels to see a number of critically endangered species before they vanished for good.)
If you haven’t read Hitchhiker’s Guide, do so, and if you don’t like it, don’t tell me. It can be your little secret.