There's a hunger for stories in all of us, adults too. We need stories so much that we're even willing to read bad books to get them, if the good books won't supply them.

Pullman argues that narrative desire is a basic human appetite, not something confined to childhood. Adults, like children, seek the satisfactions stories provide—pattern, meaning, emotional rehearsal, and companionship—and this need can override discriminating taste. The line about “bad books” is less a sneer at readers than a diagnosis of scarcity: when literature, publishing, or culture fails to offer compelling, nourishing narratives, people will still consume whatever is available to meet the craving. Implicitly, it’s also a defense of storytelling as a serious art and a challenge to writers and educators to supply “good books” that respect this deep, persistent hunger.