I thought about this because my wife is not an avid reader, but lately she’s been reading some heavily criticized authors like Colleen Hoover. She knows the faults with Hoover, but told me she enjoys how they’re just quick easy to digest reads.
It got me thinking about how most folks when discussing books or authors really don’t give them that leeway, and is that right?
Think about with TV. A lot of otherwise educated or intelligent people may have some guilty pleasure reality TV love, and society generally accepts this is OK. Most agree with the logic of sometimes you just want to come home, veg out, and put on something where you can get some entertainment without using your brain at all.
Same with movies. There are a ton of films that aren’t technically profound, but are widely loved because it’s just a “turn your brain off and enjoy it” movie.
Books really don’t have this privilege. There are schlocky authors like Hoover or Patterson who pump out dozens of mediocre, simple writing, but most critical readers instead of just accepting that some folks may want something simple occasionally will treat it as though these books have no place on the shelf.
Is that just the nature of reading compared to movies and shows in your opinion? You can’t just turn the brain off? Or should we give more leeway to some of the shitty simple books out there?