You know, I'll disagree with you on this one. I don't think most novels are poorly written although some of them are, especially now that there's so much self-publishing going on. I think it's more that great novels are in the minority because competent is achievable, but greatness is difficult.

Sturgeon's Law: Ninety percent of everything is crap.

Reading level is about complexity, not quality. Judging quality by reading level is like judging food by calorie count. So no it is not objectively, factually correct.

Yes, but there's nothing wrong with reading pop culture YA and nothing inherently right with reading "better literature." It's a preference. Some people like roast beef, some people like chicken, but it's all protein. The things that make you prioritize one kind of fiction are absolutely valid for you, but not for…

Reading levels aren't a reflection of education or intelligence. They're based on things like complex sentence structure and vocabulary, which means that a lot of truly elegant, clean writing is at an eighth grade reading level. It also means that if your reading level is post grad, reading something at an eighth…

This. I earned an MFA writing romance fiction. I still vividly remember the day one of my professors said, "Jenny, you write so well. Have you ever thought about writing literature?" I thought about saying, "Genre fiction is literature and literary fiction is just another genre," but her identity was so tied up…

The problem with a statement like "YA fiction is dumbed-down, emotionally florid, and . . . simplistic . . ." is that unless you've read all YA fiction, you can't know that it's true, and even if you have read all YA fiction, it's only your opinion. So if you say, "In my opinion, the YA fiction that I've read is…

Oh, I misunderstood. Apologies.

I'm good with that. I want most of the scenes in the movie unspoiled by the trailers.

Mail Pilot is a nightmare. It crashes multiple times daily, and the Mailsense support is non-existent. I've e-mailed them over and over and after the first few "we're working on the problem" responses, they've stopped answering entirely. That's fine, give me my money back. Nope.

That's wonderful! Thank you for posting that!

You know, I agree with you to a point; you absolutely can't judge a film or a book until you've seen or read it. But I think it's also fair to say, "I hate stories where the woman's motivation comes from a man doing her wrong, and this is one of those stories." Maybe I should have said, "I hate this kind of story?"

I love the trailers so much that even if the movie isn't good, I'll keep them bookmarked for a two-minute hit of happy whenever I need one.

This is a fantastic analysis of what makes or breaks a great antagonist. Thank you.

Saying a book never should have been written is an opinion on the book.

I thought it was awful, and I'm a huge Sherlock/Moffat fan. The last episode wasn't bad, but the first two made me want to throw something at the TV in general and Sherlock in particular.

I saw that as a leap of faith and thought it was exhilarating. But then that may be my favorite series of all time, so I'm biased toward thinking that's a happy, optimistic ending.

It works if you can get the gist of whatever it is from the context. If you stop to say, "What?" you've been thrown out of the story.

Person of Interest does it every season. Every time you think you know what's coming, they change the entire game. After every season, I think, "They can't take this any higher," and then they do, and the way they do it throws everything that came before in a new light. They reinvent that show every year. Amazing…

Actually, it does. Most fiction writers can't make enough to support themselves with their writing. A dental hygienist probably doesn't have a lot of overtime but does have a steady income with benefits, which means she's secure enough to write in her free time, plus she's not writing at work, so she's free to put…