The Year’s Worst Writing in Books — Delete Key Awards Winners — Tomorrow at 10 a.m.

The 2007 Delete Key Award winners were Danielle Steel’s Toxic Bachelors, Mitch Albom’s For One More Day and Claire Messud’s The Emperor’s Children. Which books will win tomorrow?

The winners of the second annual Delete Key Awards for the year’s worst writing in books will be announced on this site tomorrow at 10 a.m. Eastern Time. The complete list will appear by noon.

Questions and answers about the Delete Key Awards appeared on Feb. 24 www.oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2008/02/24/. The list of the 10 finalists and samples of their writing were posted on Feb. 29 www.oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2008/02/29/.

Today is your last chance to try to save an author from doom by leaving a comment. Are you listening, Steve Martin fans? You need to write fast if you think he should be spared despite that alphabet book … Next week, or maybe sooner, I’ll be reviewing some of the wonderful books I’ve been reading to cheer myself up while judging the contest.

(c) 2008 Janice Harayda. All rights reserved.

Democratic ‘Luv Guv’ James McGreevey Couldn’t Win a Delete Key Award in 2007, But Can Republican Newt Gingrich Do It in 2008?

James McGreevey, the former governor of New Jersey, made the shortlist for last year’s Delete Key Awards with a steamy gay-sex passage from his memoir, The Confession. But the Democrat known as the “Luv Guv” lost to Danielle Steel, Mitch Albom and Claire Messud. Can the former Republican Speaker of the House do better when the 2008 winners are announced on Friday?

Newt Gingrich and co-author William Forstchen made the shortlist with this passage from Pearl Harbor: A Novel of December 8th (St. Martin’s/Thomas Dunne):

“James nodded his thanks, opened the wax paper and looked at bit suspiciously at the offering, it looked to be a day or two old and suddenly he had a real longing for the faculty dining room on campus, always a good selection of Western and Asian food to choose from, darn good conversation to be found, and here he now sat with a disheveled captain who, with the added realization, due to the direction of the wind, was in serious need of a good shower.”

Read the full 2008 shortlist here www.oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2008/02/29/. You’ll find the shortlisted 2007 passage by former New Jersey “Luv Guv” Jim McGreevey (“He greeted me in his briefs …”) here www.oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2007/03/14/. The winners will be announced on Friday, March 14, starting at 10 a.m. Eastern Time, so you need to leave a comment today if you want to try to rig the jury.

The annual Delete Key Awards recognize authors who aren’t using their delete keys enough. They don’t honor the “worst books” but instead call attention to the worst passages in books, such as individual sentences or paragraphs.

(c) 2008 Janice Harayda. All rights reserved.