I read books that I know they are bad as I'm reading them, and still keep reading them. One example is Dan Brown's books, other examples might be Twilight Saga, or books that are very repetitive to send the message like "Leaders eat last" or "Surrounded by idiots". They are written in an addictive way you have to keep reading, and makes them popular (not good). They have a lot of paragraphs or full chapters that are very clearly written in one go and never looked back to fix mistakes. Usually you could get rid of entire chapters and the book would be the same.
Then you have good books, where you can feel that the author took care of doing a good job. They are not redundant, and they don't use dirty cheap tricks to keep you engaged. They might be even repulsive or unnerving (I'm thinking of Kafka's The Metamorphosis or The Trial), and some people can find them boring.
The point is that you can read both of them. It's like watching a quality TV show (maybe The Wire), but also watch some Kardashians. You can easily tell which one is good, and which one is bad but made in some way that you want to keep watching even when you know you are wasting your time and getting nothing in return other than a goog feeling that disipates as soon as you end watching. It's like reading a danluu blog entry or wasting one hour in TikTok or Instagram: one of them is good, the others are tricking your mind to keep you engaged. There's nothing bad in wasting some time, but IMO it's important to be aware of what is happening, that not all content is the same, and that popularity doesn't necessarily means good.
Then you have good books, where you can feel that the author took care of doing a good job. They are not redundant, and they don't use dirty cheap tricks to keep you engaged. They might be even repulsive or unnerving (I'm thinking of Kafka's The Metamorphosis or The Trial), and some people can find them boring.
The point is that you can read both of them. It's like watching a quality TV show (maybe The Wire), but also watch some Kardashians. You can easily tell which one is good, and which one is bad but made in some way that you want to keep watching even when you know you are wasting your time and getting nothing in return other than a goog feeling that disipates as soon as you end watching. It's like reading a danluu blog entry or wasting one hour in TikTok or Instagram: one of them is good, the others are tricking your mind to keep you engaged. There's nothing bad in wasting some time, but IMO it's important to be aware of what is happening, that not all content is the same, and that popularity doesn't necessarily means good.