What Makes ‘Good’ Book?

By Marilyn Forsyth

I’ll start by stating the obvious: the concept of a ‘good’ book is totally subjective.

But...

There are certain qualities all readers expect from a book they’d recommend.

From what I’ve read, what many readers identify as the most important quality of a good book is a CAPTIVATING STORYLINE. They want to be sucked into the story and transported to another world for the (often) all-too-brief hours of the read.

Next in importance is COMPELLING CHARACTERS. Readers want believable characters they can identify with and come to care about. They want to laugh with them, cry with them, and think about them long after the book is finished. 

Who can forget Katniss Everdeen??

For many readers it’s the author’s LANGUAGE STYLE that makes a book memorable. Every author’s voice is unique to them, their personality emerging in the tone of the book, in their word choice, in the way they structure sentences and use punctuation. I think dialogue comes in here, too (I love good banter).

A SATISFYING ENDING is the gauge of a good book for many readers. Getting to the end and closing the book with a sigh of happiness or a fist pump of celebration is, for them, the final decider.

Other things mentioned as features of a good book are pragmatic things like auto-buy authors, thorough research, and decent-sized print (although this isn’t an issue with e-books). Some readers judge from a scan of the first page (or the first few lines) whether the book will grab them and not let go. Others nominate themes like old houses, family secrets, etc. as good books because they're into that genre.

For me, I judge how good a book is by how much it makes me ‘feel’ as I’m reading. If I can feel each character’s excitement or delight, sadness or anger or regret, that’s exactly what I want. And if it keeps me up reading into the early hours (even knowing I’ll pay for it the next day), that’s a bonus.

I can’t finish this post without mention of things that spoil a potentially good book. These are my no-nos:

 Lack of thorough copy-editing (grammar/spelling/punctuation mistakes take me out of the story)

Inconsistency in character behaviour (takes away from believability of the character)

Plot holes (should never happen)

The book not meeting genre/cover/blurb expectations

 

How about you? I’d love to know what you think makes a book ‘good’ (or bad)? Let me know in the comments.

Love to Love: holidays! We recently returned from Khao Lak in Thailand. Such a relaxing time in a gorgeous place.

Love to Laugh: at crazy memes. (I’m an Ed Sheeran tragic but this made me laugh out loud.)

Love to Learn: I’m doing an on-line Watercolour class at the moment. (I'd share but I'm not happy with my efforts yet. 😉)