Not all books with bad reputations are truly awful; some have redeeming qualities worth exploring. While controversial, The Mortal Instruments series offers compelling characters & themes beyond ...

A good bad book can range from plain cringey to outright offensive, which is what I suspect — and even hope for — going into them. They always live up to my expectations because I go into them with ...

In my recent book “The Art of the Interesting,” I explore the ... The more you instinctively react with a “good” or a “bad,” the less of the world you take in. You’ll be less likely to engage your ...

A category that Orwell did not investigate is “bad bad books,” required reading despite their badness. We read them for the profit of understanding their time.

Critics aren’t always aligned in their judgments; part of the job description, in fact, is to be ready for disagreement. I’ve had many private disputes about books with colleagues.