When a book raises your spirit, and inspires you with noble and courageous feelings, seek for no other rule to judge the work by; it is good, and made by a good workman.

The effect a thing has on you is better evidence than any expert verdict about it. If something leaves you braver, clearer, more inclined to behave well, that is a real result, and no amount of fashionable dismissal changes it. None of that argues for ignoring judgment altogether, but taste borrowed entirely from other people tends to leave you unable to say what you actually like.

Notice what reliably lifts you and stop apologising for it. Give one evening this week to the thing that has that effect, rather than the thing you feel you ought to be getting through.