The problem with online booklists, Lissel thought, was that they made you conscious about not only what other people were reading, but how fast they were doing so, and how many friends had decided to discuss their literary aspirations with them. A place that fostered nerdish fraternity, a niche for the language-inclined, became a comparison chart. And it became increasingly distressing, downright mortifying, to know that a book, well-loved, and well-lauded (in no less than an average of 5 out of 5 stars!) by the mass public made one yawn and want to hang oneself. There was persecution and then there was willing self-immolation, and Lissel was through with both. She couldn’t quite chuck her laptop in the trash though, and so resigned herself to peeping between her fingers if she happened to (accidentally, I assure you!) land on anything remotely related to the Lists.
RED GLADIOLA 
OMG! Thank you for that! It needed to be said! Of course I’m an oddfellow so my tastes have never conformed to that of list makers. Lissel thinks very wisely….
Ah, glad this piece resonated with you. I as hoping it would. There have been a few books for me too, where I didn’t understand the mass appeal. =)