The Notebook. 
 It is the romance novel that jumpstarted Nicholas Sparks' carreer. To say its name, women reach for their tissues while men everywhere roll their eyes and shake their heads. After hearing both negative and positive comments about The Notebook, I decided to check it out for myself. And I have lost track of the times that I laughed and said "Are you serious?" 
 With such poignant lines such as: 
 "His flat stomach" 
 "Her stomach flat" 
 "They joined as one" (a line describing the sex scene) 
 "Somewhere there were people making love." 
 "quiver in his loins" 
 Clearly, we are in the presence of a literary classic. 
 The story itself is rather cliched and is a Harlequin romance disguised as "love story" and or "deep literature". While cliches are to be avoided, there are instances where using them is okay. For instance, there are two ways to use cliches. 
 1) A sign of a good writer is using cliches in a new and innovative way. 
 OR 
 2)A sign of a bad writer is that they uses cliches and then insist that it is original and creative. 
 Sparks is the second one. He dumps cliche upon cliche into The Notebook such as first love, the kiss in the rain, forbidden love, the sensitive man who is so connected to his feminine side that his balls have shriveled up, ect. 
 And that is only the beginning of the suckatude. Lines cheesier than Velveeta, saccharine nonsense galore, a Gary Stu protagonist, and an inaccurate depiction of Alzheimer's. 
 If you are looking for a good romance novel, skip The Notebook. 
 *Please note: 
 I can understand if people like The Notebook because it is a guilty pleasure/beach read. But don't tell me that it is a literary masterpiece, I'll just laugh. 
 I have the right to express my opinion and anyone can feel free to disagree with me. I welcome any intelligent discussion of the Notebook. I also welcome anyone who wishes to tell me why they don't agree what I have said as long as they act like mature adults. 
 I don't tolerate asshats.* 
 Update: (11/15/14) 
 Oh my god: take a look at this 
 http://time.com/3457860/nicholas-spar...