A few days ago, I asked readers on Twitter “what is your new favorite book?” The winner of the Top Writer’s Picks contest was Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” written in 1887 as a satirical tale of a black slave named Huck.
I didn’t just win a contest to write about Huck; I also picked up four copies of the book during the two-day giveaway. But in fact, the winner was almost certainly my own new favorite book: Stephen King’s “Misery.”
The winner of the contest’s top prize — a signed copy of my own book — was the New York Times author Michael Chabon. King won the Top Writer’s Pick contest a year earlier and was selected by a panel of judges for Best First Book.
Why choose a book that’s just not very good?
The Top Writer’s Picks contest is run by the New York Times and the American Booksellers Association. Its judging process is “rigorous and rigorous” in “trying to identify not only literary excellence but also the best novel, best short story or best nonfiction on any subject under discussion,” according to the official statement on the contest’s website. (That was the usual phrase in the announcement of my winning book, which was a nonfiction account of how the U.S. government has been suppressing an outbreak of smallpox, including with a deadly dose of anthrax.)
While many books are considered top novels and novels are considered top books, no one has ever won two top literary contests, much less three. And the prize in a contest that gives prizes for both writing and speaking is an honor.
In one sense, one can see why King won — “Huck” tells a story of black slave rebellion. In one sense, it’s a clever, well-told thriller. And it’s not as literary as the likes of “Moby Dick” and, perhaps ominously, a “JFK biography.” In any event, “Huck” is a powerful work in its own right. I was drawn to Stephen King’s “Misery” because, in its treatment of black culture, the story feels as if the author of “The Hunger Games” had been in charge of this little Southern town during its Civil Rights Era.
“The biggest difficulty for writers of color writing about race today is finding an audience, and having to talk about race as a topic,” King told The Huffington Post by phone.
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