Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I bought this book after reading a favorable review in the Wall Street Journal. I returned it after reading the first quarter of the book. I didn't know that you could return a kindle book. My reaction to the book was visceral. I couldn't bring myself to read another word. My reaction grew stronger. I wanted the book out of my life, out of my kindle. Turns out I was in time to return it. I'll be pleased to receive the refund, but the truth is that the act of removing the book from my kindle was worth it even without getting money back. The author's advice is nothing new. Use the active voice. Keep the modifier and the modified near each other. Be concise, be clear. ("Eschew obfuscation" is another way of saying that. I saw that one written on a rest room wall in a law school many years ago.) Absolutely, positively avoid adverbs. (That was a joke.) Don't take candy from adjectives. And so on. He offers examples for correction. The writing that he puts under the microscope is so bad that it could be improved just by rearranging the words at random. There is no great skill needed to repair such awful prose. True, the examples are taken from real life. But if you are reading this book, you are avoiding these errors already. It was his insistence on parading his political views that caused me to send the book back instead of just putting it aside. His political views are what you would expect from the editor of a string of mainstream news publications. Whether you find those views congenial or annoying, they have nothing to do with good writing. The author ought to have written another book and put them there. If you have gotten to the end of this book and tell me that the really good stuff starts right where I stopped reading, I will congratulate you on seeing it through. I usually feel an obligation to finish a book I've started. Not this time.