Cote the thing is to discuss a book with someone I think there has to be some common ground in terms of taste/interest, OR a set of criteria that both parties are using such as when formally studying a text, OR an issue-based argument for example whether a book is racist…
There’s no issue-based topic here, we don’t have a shared set of criteria – you say for example a particular novel is well-written but what does that mean? I would say that’s not an absolute, within fiction genres what passes or not for well-written will vary according to the genre conventions or the readers’ expectations of that particular subset of titles or via the authority of influential gatekeepers – Leavis’s influence on what was considered good/bad for example or more recently, albeit to a diminishing extent, literary prizes. So, what you really mean is that according to your own specifications/taste group it’s well-written but as we have very little overlap what you consider well-written is unlikely to be what I consider well-written and vice-versa.
I don’t read books about physics or mathematics, so no overlap there, I read very little genre fiction, so no overlap there, I read very little contemporary fiction, so no overlap there. My idea of a ‘brainhurty’ book would be something like Kant on the beautiful or the sublime, maybe some elements of Deleuze, so no overlap there. From your lists: you rarely read literature in translation, so no overlap there; you rarely read vintage novels, so no overlap there,; you don’t seem to read the kind of books about political or social issues that I would choose, so no overlap there. So, our aesthetic, social, political, and all the myriad, conscious-or-not criteria guiding what we chose to read or avoid are poles apart.
Also, maybe unintentional, from your comments on chick-lit you seem to be quite judgemental about what other people read, whereas I think that chick lit is as valid a genre as any other, within that genre there will be more or less successful examples of the genre and that’s it. I don’t seem to read much chick-lit but that’s not because I think it has more or less cultural value but simply because it doesn’t appeal to me on a personal level. If I did read chick-lit and I read your scathing comments about it, and were a less confident person I would be hesitant to contribute to this thread, because who wants to feel put down for what they read?
Nor do I assume that something I don’t find ‘profound or intellectually stimulating’ is therefore not profound or intellectually stimulating full stop…Although with certain fields such as history or philosophy whether an argument is coherent, well-researched, takes on board the relevant debates within the field and so on, can serve as guides to the effectiveness of a text.
We also have a mismatch of expectations around the term ‘great literature’ because it’s a term I find problematic, okay as vague shorthand in certain contexts but not for any sustained discussion, since what is/isn’t great literature is predicated on relations of cultural value that are themselves context-dependent and subject to scrutiny. So, we don’t even agree on the basic terms for a discussion.
In a nutshell I like The Master and Margarita, you don’t, it doesn’t bother me that you don’t like it, as we seem to have little in common as far as our reading is concerned, so why should you like it…so what!