What the reader brings to a story

I just finished reading Mitch Albom's Tuesdays with Morrie. Like all of Albom's books, it speaks about our connections with others and really made me think about what's important in life. So I rushed over to GoodReads to give it 5 stars and was surprised to see its ratings cover the spectrum. Some readers (probably the ones who cried when Bambi's mother died, like me) loved it and gushed over the message saturating every page; while others likened it to a Hallmark greeting card and slapped ...