Excellent observations, Margaret. It goes without saying that you can add book critics to the concept of judging books. Too often a book is dismissed by a reader because of a bad review -- and perhaps not often enough, a "bad" book is praised by a critic for the wrong reasons (i.e., it may have been written by a "hot" author). The point is that readers should decide the books they would like to spend their time with, regardless of what a critic may think. Reading is indeed a very personal and subjective activity, and every reader should use his or her own judgment -- not critics, influencers or awards -- to read a book, especially if it is out of his/her comfort zone.