The Undefinable "Good Book"

I've decided I will never understand what makes a good book.  I recently read the Hunger Games in preparation for being dragged to the movie by my wife.  I did this in the middle of revising some of my work and almost didn't get past the first two pages.  There I was laboring to write beautiful sentences that will engage readers without driving an editor nuts and one of the top books in my chosen genre has a bizzillion sentence fragments in its first two pages.

I eventually took off my editor/reviser's hat and read the entire book.  I actually enjoyed the story despite struggling through the grammar.  I found myself wanting more emotion and less cold calculation from Katniss so I could relate to her better.  I thought the declaration near the end of the book, that Cato had always been the one to beat, lacked appropriate foreshadowing.  It always talked about the careers but not Cato specifically.  While I found the story interesting and enjoyed some of the imagery, I struggled with the writing.

As I return to my novel and look at all the different suggestions from people, it has become clear that everyone wants something different in a novel.  If I were an agent or publisher I would have turned Hunger Games down before I finished the second page...I guess that shows what I know about writing a successful novel.