So, it seems like it goes without saying that everyone has their own taste, particularly when it comes to entertainment. I still find reviews be they professional or amateur the conclusion is often less interesting than the reason. Partly because of differences in taste. For a while there was one movie reviewer who had the exact opposite taste to mine, so anytime I saw raves from that person, I took it off my go see list. Someone may say that they hate books in first person (doesn't bother me) or present tense (ugh, but for a good book I will put up with it) or with too many points of view.
And of course I think most of us have had that moment where someone (or several someones) tell us something is amazing, and we find it kinda meh. There have been times I have gone back to someone and said, so, here was my issue, now tell me what you loved about it. And I mean that genuinely, because sometimes after some time to process, you see why that thing appealed to them (or not, but you can't know if you don't ask). I once read a book based on someone talking about an awesome principle that the book addressed. And I enjoyed the book but it was taking a while to get through. And in practically the last chapter we got to the thing that that person had mentioned and it got not even a whole paragraph. And this is not to say I wasted my time on this book, but I went in with incorrect assumptions. Those were mostly, if not entirely, my fault, but it colored my experience of the book.
Anyhoodle. All of that is to say, I want to point you to this post over at Super Librarian, wherein she details some reasons for not liking some popular books. But, first, I want to mention that she gives reasons. And really, in addition to the interesting discussion about what makes a book grab the casual reader (as opposed to the constant reader like myself), she has this fabulous quote that sums up much of my reading taste. "I barely tolerate stupid people in real life, I can't spend my leisure time reading about them....." Yes. A thousand times, yes. Now, sure, stupid may be in the eye of the beholder. But, yeah, nothing makes me more annoyed faster than stupid characters.
Rants About New (and old) Things
