The author had choices here and made a wrong one. If you say you didn’t read the book then you certainly look bad. It might be a “dick move” to dissemble about not reading the book but it is possible that you get away with it.
Sure, but there's a difference between "this book is really bad, it contains errors and wrong advice, I would advise against it and avoid it" and "goddamn this is literally the stupidest book that has ever been written". They convey the same amount of information, but the author's feelings are not hurt equally.
It’s better to say I think the authors should have thought about X rather the author is a moron and incompetent for not doing X. You can still say it by critiquing the actions not the character of the person. Similar rules exist in the Houses of parliament around accusations of lying simply because everyone would decend into that as a method of argument. It’s harder to call people out but still possible in my opinion.
No, actually it's not. This isn't ignoring the issue at hand and just attacking the author's character, it's attacking the authors authority on a subject matter.
Stating my opinion about the author's opinion isn't slander. Take it easy. And there's no reason to compare the author and me. We're talking about the opinion here, not about who holds it.
tl;dr: An author (and, not an especially good one) is willfully irresponsible in spending her large publishing advance, and blames absolutely everyone except herself.
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