3. Letters To E.T. Book
If there was an award for the most self-indulgent movie merchandise ever made, then the book Letters To E.T. would certainly take home the whole hog. Here's a book that offers not a single scrap of nourishment, intellectually or in terms of (intentional) entertainment value, but instead is simply a hardback collection of letters that deify the film's director, Steven Spielberg. The letters, written by everyone ranging from the youngest kids to the oldest geriatrics, are apparently real, though it's difficult to believe that when the tone is so idiosyncratic; they read more like what a hostage would be forced to write at gunpoint by their captors. If not that, then it's enough to suggest that there's a causal link between the movie and mental illness. Some of the letters are to E.T. himself, some are to Spielberg, but the consistent fact is that they're in a book that is basically just exalting Spielberg, and
charging people for the privelege. And
people have actually bought it. We all love a good coffee table book, but this curio goes beyond to become something so perfunctory it actually can't quite be dismissed; I guarantee if you ever read through it, you'll be unable to put it down. It's the five-lane pile-up of movie book tie-ins.