In looking at some of the most popular books in the past few years, most have clearly not been NGANs (“next great American novels”). In fact, some of them were so far  off the “literary” mark that they barely had any discernible qualities that made them obviously worthwhile (let’s just say that a particular example rhymes with “Flylight”). These guilty-pleasure books—mostly targeted to female audiences—have plenty of qualities that, on paper, make them decidedly NOT worthwhile: they often portray flat, archetype characters; they have repetitive asinine phrases and clichés that clutter the dialogue; the characters are barely likeable, and if you “like” a character, you aren’t even sure why; the plots are predictable; they reflect a negative, regressive societal role… [read more]