Lectures on Popery V2: The Mystery of Babylon! Or, the Abominations of the Church of Rome (1825)

It doesn’t take much to write badly, and it takes even less to write badly badly, but it’s a lot more difficult to write badly well and make the reader want to keep turning pages. Ed Buhrer’s Adventures in Bad Writing with Dwayne and Jessica is good, well-written bad writing that is still fun to read. Why? you may ask. Okay, picture a slightly deranged Nancy Drew dating one of the Hardy Boys-Joe, probably. There you will have Dwayne, the disgustingly amiable computer geek who’s addicted to celery, and Jessica, the athletic and assertive woman of the new millennium whose rapier-like elbows keep Dwayne in line and the bad guys at bay. Hardly a moment in an adventure goes by without mystery, heart-stopping, cliff-hanging crises, unlikely coincidences, and verbose redundancy that would make even redundantly verbose James Fenimore Cooper envious. Travel along with Dwayne and Jessica on one adventure and you’ll be hooked for the rest.