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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 6228801" data-attributes="member: 177">Yes.  But, if you eat beef Wellington (and its like) every day, you end up with gout.  As a daily breakfast, Cheerios are much better for you.And critics don't get credit for hyperbolic or emotionally charged language <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />I am by no means saying that, in terms of literary analysis, Salvatore compares favorably to, say Bradbury or Ellison.  But literary analysis ain't everything.Moreover, do you *want* every book to be Beef Wellington?  See above about the issues associated with a diet that it too rich.  "Always" is an absolute, and rare indeed is the true absolute in human experience.  Whether or not one is better than the other will depend on what end you desire to reach.If you're talking reasoning acuity, memory enhancement, and other academic-performance types of measures, the literary quality of the book isn't terribly important, but the reading-grade-level of the language is.  It doesn't matter that you find it hackneyed that he brought a character back - the brain is getting exercised merely by processing the words regardless, even if it is a Harlequin romance.  Moreover, keeping people in the habit of reading has long-range impact.  That means we need a goodly does of works that are appealing and accessible.I submit those as unsupported assertions, as it is somewhat aside the main track of the thread, and I'd prefer not to derail it with discussions of scientific research that has little to do with the Forgotten Realms.</blockquote>

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