How can Anne Rice be so popular? I just don't get it.

Not everybody is so bothered by adjectives as you are, apparently. I've read a couple of Anne Rice books and don't remember having any adjectival problems. At one point in my life I was quite dependent, spiritually, on a stand of oak trees. They were in no way towering. I get a completely different picture from 'towering oaks' than I do from 'oaks'.