Anatomy of a Good Book

In the end of The Quest for the Silver Fleece, one of the main characters, Mary, who started out as a bright and promising school teacher is left sickly, barely functioning and divorced. Even though her story starts out a happy one, it ends unhappily. And that is something some readers hate. Many readers love rosy endings where everyone rides off into the sunset: handsome, charming, beautiful and fulfilled and though, I admit, I am a sucker for a good ending, it is not a requirement for me. 

Why?

I like characters and plots that are realistic and that means that love isn’t always happily ever after, the bad guys do sometimes win and that character you were rooting to change just doesn’t. 

I admit that particular element of a good novel may not be the one that most people have in mind, but most people do have standards for a good novel that are important to them. Whether you learned this through your education or your own system of book selection and whether you are aware of it or not, there are criteria you are looking for in a good book. 

I’d love to hear about yours, but because this is, currently, a one-sided conversation, I’ll tell you about mine.

Educational

If I’m going to spend several hours of my time on anything, I want to walk away with something. In many instances, that is something that I learned. That doesn’t mean I always read nonfiction or books with overt themes, but I want to learn something about life, about being human, about the history of our planet and the people in it. I want to learn and a good book always leads to learning of some kind.

Interesting

I don’t always have to be on the edge of my seat, but I want to at least want to pick up the book. That might be because I want to see the next piece of advice or because I want to see how the character will react to the new situation, it may also be because I’ve found the ideas helpful so far and am looking for more. This one may be more of a negative criteria, but essentially, I have to want to keep reading.

Concise

Good writers know how to say a lot with a little. One of the best books that illustrated that for me was And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. When I saw the audiobook was only 6 hours, I was hooked. She got a lot done in a short amount of time. I still had a good feel for the characters, the setting and the plot, but there was no elaborate description of a mountain top that had nothing to do with the story.

Clean

Nowadays, the term that is often used is “no spice,” and that is important. I understand that sex is part of life and not even a bad part of life, but I just personally don’t want to be in other people’s bedrooms. I also don’t like a lot of swearing, particularly if it’s being used as a filler word or because the author is not good at describing and violence is just not my jam. Some people like all of that and we can still be friends, but I will never give a book recommendation without feeling the need to warn you about these items.

Inspiring

If a novel is all these things, it’s already got a pretty good rating from me, but the thing that really makes the writing sing for me is that it makes me want to be a better person. This is, after all, why I read in the first place. Yes, I want to learn something, but at the end of the day, the most important thing I want to learn is how to improve. If I can see how I can grow as a person or how someone else is struggling and therefore, have more empathy or even if the writing conveys an idea through asides or characterization that leaves me thinking, I’m giving that a good rating. 

What about you? What is your criteria for a good book? If my criteria is something that resonated with you, follow along for ideas and insights. This is the evaluating criteria I’ll be using for any book recommendations and the goals I strive for in my own writing.