Now you just sound like some wine snob going on about gooseberries, summer mornings, a hint of rose but with deep woody charcoal aftertase...

...it's just wine drink it, if you don't like it, drink something else. If you want to elevate it to something more than that, go wild, have a ball, but dont expect the rest of society to join you on that journey. People generally drink wine to get tipsy to a greater or lesser extent, and wine snobs or 'experts' if you will may harp on about all the so called virtues of the wine, but to the majority as long as it hits the spot, job done. People generally read books to enjoy a story, it's no different.

In so many fields were people analyse to the nth degree, they lose sight of what the majority are looking for. Fashionistas, go on about empowerment, colour style blah blah blah, does it cover us, look good and get us laid? Yup job done. Do films amuse, entertain, occaisonally inform? Yup, job done. Gastronomy may wax lyrical about flavouring and ingredients and harmony and all the rest, but to most people, did it tatse good and was it filling? Yup job done.

I have no idea what your first paragraph said, seriously, I regard it with the same smile of amusement I hold for those wine peeps. Your original question was "How these are popular with so many is what I am trying to understand." The answer is exactly what I said it was, easy, fun, entertaining read.

Perhaps the real question should be - why are you so unwilling to accept that people read books for fun and stories, and as long as that is achieved, it is 'well' written. You mock your own love of wrestling, yet whilst I dont watch wrestling these days, and haven't for years, I would still regard it as one of the best produced pieces of entertainment around. Not for me anymore, but a masterpiece of what it's trying to achieve - sports entertainment. Not everything has to have 'worth' and sometimes fun and entertainment is easily worthwile enough.