If you are holding your favorite book in your hands and are just trying to relax by reading something: compartmentalize that part of yourself that thinks you could have written it better. Critiques are off the table, no trying to analyze and pick it apart. Just don't do it!
Sure we are told over and over again that if you want to be a better writer that you should read as often as possible, and I believe it is true as well. However, I don't think enough is said about the relaxation part. Sure, reading helps us to learn to be better at the writing craft, but lets not get so caught up in trying to extrapolate lessons from the story that we forget to just sit back and enjoy the ride. Some books I will jump back and forth between just reading and picking apart. Some I read just to pick apart and others I read over and over again just to enjoy.
I will NEVER open my favorite books to do anything other than read to enjoy it. If you can't turn of the criticism or are under the assumption that you need to be able to pick apart your favorite book in order to be a better writer; I could not disagree more.
There are some places we go in the real world to escape from the daily grind. Places where we can enjoy the sublime beauty of nature, places where we can take a deep breath and refresh ourselves. If we are true about being writers, wouldn't we want that one well where we can be refreshed? That one book that we refuse to sully? I wouldn't go to my favorite hiking spot and start pointing out issues like the view was not as good as it could be, or if it was overgrown in spots, or if too many people seemed to be there these days. I would have ruined it for myself and would forever be hearing that critical voice, forever looking for the flaws. I would be trying to fool myself into thinking that somehow I was going to grow by being able to take a "critical and educated eye" to something beloved to me.
I guess that just might be me though. I admit there are books that I really like that I am willing to think in a critical way. But there are other stories that are dear to me that I would never think of trying to pick them apart. Not that there might not be flaws in them. I just want them preserved in my mind the way they were the first time that I read them. I want to be able to have the experience of approaching them always like an old friend that I would warmly welcome. I would never approach my wife or a life long friend with a desire to some how "better myself through criticism of that which I love," so why would I do it with my favorite book.
Not saying that we should make idols out of certain books either. If we can preserve our enjoyment of a book though. If we can have just one spot--one story rather--that we can breath in, I think that is a thousand times better than any perceived benefit from being critical.
That's just me though.
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