Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded
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That's the title of a recent book by science fiction writer John Scalzi (hardcover 2008, paperback 2010). The subtitle — A Decade of Whatever, 1998-2008 — refers to the fact that the book is a selection of essays from Scalzi's blog Whatever, which he's been writing since 1998, on a wide range of topics, including current affairs, politics, entertainment, parenting, and some goofy stuff. Every so often Scalzi responds to some of the voluminous hate mail his opinionated essays provoke, by critiquing the form and content of the mail (hence the title of this book). (Hat tip to Elizabeth Daingerfield Zwicky.)
A recent entry was graced by that icon of popular culture Homer Simpson, voicing his famous interjection:
Some Language Log postings on d'oh here, here, here, and here.
(Also from Scalzi, the 2007 book You're Not Fooling Anyone When You Take Your Laptop to a Coffee Shop: Scalzi on Writing, which is not a manual on writing style, but a book of essays mostly about the practical details of a writer's life.)