40 years ago my friends and I were all into science fiction and fantasy novels. My best friend's brother Bob* bought a hugely successful science fiction tome (the book was really thick) entitled, "Battlefield Earth."

Bob slogged through "Battlefield Earth" and said it was one of the most boring, trite and cliched books he'd ever read. Most of us then tried the book and gave up. None of us could figure out why it was such a big seller when we - the key target audience of teenage boys - thought it sucked giant donkey balls.

Then we found out who L. Ron Hubbard was, and it was all clear. I've been skeptical about anything "popular" related to Scientology since then.

*Not his real name