We've been ignored critically, but we sell like crazy because women read like crazy.

Well, no. Try getting a consensus on what good literature is from critics (which critics? NYT? Romantic Times? Locus?), universities (which universities? which profs?), bookstores (which bookstores? indies? B&N? Amazon? UBSs?), schools (which schools? Antioch College? Religious affiliated schools?),…

Literary fiction is a genre because "genre" just means "kind." It's a marketing term used to shelve books where people will most likely find the kind of story they like. I think in most bookstores it's not even called "literary fiction;" it's just shelved as "general fiction."

It's human to judge. It's kind to shut up about it. You're doing it right.

Don't feed him. He's having such a good time feeling superior to the rest of us that he's best just left to his own sense of higher calling.

People like that don't deserve Spirited Away.

Sometimes I think the world would be better a place if adults hadn't matured away from the sensibility in YA and kid's fiction.

Everyone should be required to read Terry Pratchett. He should be taught in high schools. Seriously. (Former high school English teacher here.) Creative problem solving, attacking cultural assumption, word play, there's so much to teach from in his books. Plus the crazy thrill of just reading the stories. You…

Well, actually, if the books haven't been taken out in a year, they're not doing the library much good. They're taking up space and not serving patrons. It is doing the library and the library patrons good if it frees up shelf space for books that will actually circulate. The books are still available from…

The problem is inventory. It screws with bookstore and library inventories to shelve in more than one place, so the publishers have to make a judgment call as to where the most sales will happen. So you have to get the other readers through marketing which is really difficult.

The problem with literary fiction isn't that it's too much for readers. There is no problem with literary fiction, it's just fine, it just doesn't have as wide an audience as some of the other genres.

All readers consume story that resemble their own lives; they do it by finding the things they connect to in the story no matter what demographic it's about. If they can't connect, they say it's boring because there's nothing in the story that excites them. That's not a short attention span, that's a personal…

Absolutely. I'd extend it and say that readers should read everything, not just all genres, but graphic novels, screenplays, everything. Open the book and read the first pages and see if the story draws you in. Screw the label on the top of the bookcase, do you like the story? Read that one.

I think a lot of these articles stem from the frustration of the literary community. It used to hold powerful sway and now it's marginalized, and that's striking at the heart of the academic/literary fiction cabal. They cannot understand why their kind of fiction isn't the best-selling because it's BETTER, damn it,…

No, that makes you think you're better because you're judging everybody by your standards. It's okay, if that makes you happy, you go ahead and feel superior.

You're making an assumption that because 90% of what you've encountered is crap, that's the experience she's had, too. Then you extend that assumption by saying if she hasn't had that experience, she's outside the norm, either lucky or forgetful. Maybe you're outside the norm and you've just been terribly unlucky…

"I do think you can consider some works of fiction to be generally more interested in larger themes, emotionally complex, or stylistically inventive than others."

If it takes her away from the real world for thirty minutes, it's not really pulpy crap.

Nora doesn't use a format. I know a lot of romance writers, and there's no format.

I'm assuming that by "any modicum of taste" you mean "with my kind of taste which is obviously the only kind of taste." Uh, no.