The End of the Timeline
Michael Chrichton passed away.
Many obituaries praise him as a writer who got kids interested in reading with his techno-thrillers. I really liked most of his books I came across (maybe with an exception to Next). My first Chrichton novel was, as I'm sure for many others, Jurassic Park. It had the very same effect the Potter-books achieved later on: I simply couldn't put it down. I think the world is a poorer place now by losing him.
Apparently an awful lot of people think otherwise. Phrases like "airport lounge lit" and "pulp fiction" are thrown around. There are also people advocating that commercial success should not be equated to literary worth and - as a general rule of thumb - writers who perform well commercially are usually very bad ones.
It's ok not to like a writer's work but I find it distasteful to disgrace him right after his death. I'm also curious how many of those who insist that Chrichton's books were shallow, poorly-written and worthless read more than one of them, either just to sneer afterwards or because despite all the literary snobbery they couldn't just put them down...