Um. I'm not in agreement with this at all. I think if we pay our money for a book, read it and think about it, we're entitled to comment on it if and where we like. Granted, it may not be given the label 'criticism', but our right to do it can't be disputed surely. What a reader wishes to take away from our commentary/ opinion/ 'criticism' is his or her decision.

That's what the arts are all about, surely.

Perhaps I've misread this piece, but I just found it arrogant, and I disliked its implication that anyone who hasn't been given the seal of approval by some unknown Literary Overseer has no right to comment on literature in his/ her own personal space.

Sort of like the movie critics telling you what movie to watch in a sense? It makes you feel as though your opinion doesn't matter.

Well, it's making me feel that my opinion is all well and good but it would be better if I kept it to myself. And I'm not 'aving that!