The NTSB analyses plane chrashes to find out why they happened. A writer can learn a lot from a badly written book. You learn what not to do. You study sentence structure. You prob e the vocabulary. Should I NOT be a critical reader? Every writer began as a critical reader.
No...
It’s a Colleen Hoover It Ends With Us reference.
You don't know what you like unless you have read a lot. To find what you like you endure fiction you don't like. To be a writer you MUST have some critical instinct. At some level EVERY author is a critic. I love mysteries! (you've read a lot of mysteries) I don't like westerns (You have read at least one) NO ONE'S taste develops in a vacuum. Don't try to tell me that is not the case. That will set off bullshit detectors on Mars!
Sorry, no. That's cynical and reductive. Outside a few narrow franchise exceptions (family entertainment and some action franchises), hits are mostly determined by quality. It's not as simple as just looking at the box office gross list and saying 'yep, popular = bad.'
Avid... Voracious, is how I would describe my reading habits...
I assume you post stories here. Do you accept feedback? Do you find some of the criticism accurate and helpful? Do you give opinion of other writer's stories? I doubt you keep your thoughts to yourself. If you are a writer who objects to all criticism on principle than I submit that you actually not much of a writer.
I have posted a couple of stories.
So you are like the woman who "hated criticism" to the point where she self-published her novel so that she would not have to endure feedback from beta readers or editors. In other words a COWARD unwilling to make a stand, incapable of being honest with yourself. You criticize me for having critical opinions therefore paradoxically being quite critical --cthe very thing you clam you don't do. Hypocrite much?
LOL...
Well Then allow me to criticize I've won prizes for my writing. I was the second place finisher for a magazine's vote of the best book in a particular subject for that year. One of my chapters was just reprinted in a recent book and I've been cited by a lot of famous suthors including Dave Moranis, Sports Illustrated and Charles C. Alexander. I think I'm qualified to say what is shit and what is not shit. I began posting her simply because I needed to work on my dialogue. The feedback keeps me here but I have over sixty books on Amazon, some under my own name and others under a pen name. I got where I am by being able to criticize and differentiate. I've written romances so I know from first-hand experience that Colleen Hoover sucks. It is NOT my opinion by every metric she sucks. She's also a defender of the patriarchy and glosses over the criminal behavior of her male protagonists and has a rather uncomfortable pregnancy fetish. In November Ninth she made an arsonist/incel/stalker whose crimes literally disfigured the heroine and nearly killed her as the heroine's fated love interest! THAT is sicker than the grossest incest story at this site. I can criticize her because I DO have the writing chops and the discernment. You refuse to be the adult in the room.
Regardless of your possible qualifications....
A mathematician can literally prove the truth of an assertion.
You can say whatever you want...
Whether you;re right or wrong is of no consequence in this instance.
Yeah, metrics are always tricky. In the case of movies, I'd say that commercial success matters the most. Viewership translates into money anyway. The recognition in the way of Academy Awards can be considered a success as well. Movie quality, now that's more the field of competent movie critics.
