Yeah I think this is a big part of it.

I recently got a goodreads account, and when you set it up it tells you to start rating books in order for them to reccomend you new books you might like. That makes it seem like reviewing based on how much you like it and how much you’d like to read similar things is what their review system is for.

I can easily want to rate a book 5 stars because I loved it, and want the website to reccomend me other similar books, while knowing that it’s really a 2 or 3 star book in terms of quality and literary merit.

Oh man I just picked this up at the library today thinking it looks good. You’ve not given me more hope!

I’m in the UK so, as previously mentioned, authors get paid each time their book is borrowed.

Even if that wasn’t the case, I’d still be using libraries for most of my reading. I wouldn’t be able to afford to read many books at all if I had to buy them.

I honestly liked it, but never thought it was the pinnacle of literature of anything. There were many problems with it, but for me, it’s one of those books for when you just want some easy reading escapism where you can just turn your brain off and have some fun.

I’ve never seen riverdale, but I imagine that’s the same turn your brain off vibe so your description is probably very accurate!