No such thing as a good book

When everyone's a critic, aesthetic hierarchies no longer rule. But we still have to decide what to read.
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To Kill a Mockingbird is one of the most successful and loved books of all time but on Goodreads, it has received 54,580 ​seering 1-star reviews including one that comments, ‘The author does a completely inadequate job of explaining how to kill a mockingbird.’

Herman Melville’s epic novel Moby Dick received 34,337 such negative reviews including this one: ‘Melville strikes me as one of those people who would corner you at a party and talk incessantly about whaling…so you finally have to pretend to go to the bathroom to get away from this crazy old man, only that he follows you and keeps talking to you.’

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Gina Fairley is ArtsHub's Senior Contributor, after 12 years in the role as National Visual Arts Editor. She has worked for extended periods in America and Southeast Asia, as gallerist, arts administrator and regional contributing editor for a number of magazines, including Hong Kong based Asian Art News and World Sculpture News. She is an Art Tour leader for the AGNSW Members, and lectures regularly on the state of the arts. She is based in Mittagong, regional NSW. Instagram: fairleygina