Honestly, reader to reader, there are only five possible reactions to a piece of writing.
I have had each of these reactions many times, but I simply refuse to name names here.
1. This is a great book, and I find it a delight to read.
2. This is a great book, but I am simply not enjoying it.
3. This is a great book, and I am simply not enjoying it. But I am going to continue reading, in hopes that changes at some point.
4. This is an awful book, and I find it a delight to read.
5. This is an awful book, but I am simply not enjoying it.
Of course, the books that so many people champion fall into #1.
And the books that we read in private fall into #4.
I find myself in #3 more often than I should be.
Life is short though, let’s stick to #1 and #4, shall we?
The best guide I know to readerly judgment is our old friend Auden, who graciously summed up a lifetime of thinking about these matters in a single incisive sentence: “For an adult reader, the possible verdicts are five: I can see this is good and I like it; I can see this is good but I don’t like it; I can see this is good, and, though at present I don’t like it, I believe with perseverance I shall come to like it; I can see that this is trash but I like it; I can see that this is trash and I don’t like it.”
-Alan Jacobs, The Pleasures Of Reading In An Age Of Distraction
