Roberta wrote:
I read a book a while back that was exquisitely written. I actually stopped occasionally to admire the writing. I stopped and reread a line or a paragraph to admire the words. The characters were fully drawn. The plot moved me forward. But I was bored. That intangible element--at least for me--was missing.
Wonderful answer, Roberta. What was the book?
As for myself. I need to be completely immersed in the story, ideally from the first line/paragragh. Whether it be fiction or non-fiction I need to really care about it, be there with it. I can appreciate other books on certain singular merits. But if I don't miss the characters when I stop reading the book, it doesn't make it to my favourites list.
Larry Ashe back on page one of the thread has done an admirable job of defining an exceptional book, or piece of writing. However, that may be just a wee bit outside the four-corners of the question. Even so Ashe's post deserves attention.
The answer to the question posed by the thread is extremely personal, so there can be no definitive answer. We all prefer the exceptional book that is both riveting and significant. Unfortunately the reality is that only a few books out of the millions published every year are exceptional. Duh! That means that serious readers who devour books in very large quantities read a whole lot that fall into one or the other categories suggested by the thread.
In my experience, non-fiction works designed for a specific audience tend to be more substantive than riveting. Personally, I might find a 450 page book finely focused on a single incident 200 years ago compelling, even though the author's writing ability would have little appeal to me. For non-fiction, I love all those notes, footnotes, annotated bibliographies, indexes, etc. If the author has new insights into the topic, I can forgive the poor dolt his clumsy use of the language. These sort of books tend to take me longer to read, but some of them stay with me a long time. Paul Johnson's wonderful book, The Birth of the Modern was impressive enough that I've given copies as gifts to other folks. Then I read his History of the American People and found it so filled with errors that not even a freshman History major should have made. That book ended up being thrown into a corner, even though Johnson's prose is easy and comfortable to read. Pseudo non-fiction, like Chariots of the Gods, and the various book claiming to reveal ancient secrets appeal to mass audiences but deliver a point of view that only encourages superstition and sloppy thinking. To read non-fiction outside of any of the fields of my immediate interest, that appear to have very little insight in addition to being turgid reading is sheer torture, and often those books never get finished.
Acceptable fiction is much easier to find on the bookshelf. Most important to me in fiction is a rousing story that keeps me turning pages after midnight. I don't expect any dramatic insights into the human condition from James Lee Burke, but I do love his way of telling a tale. I doubt that many regard Steven King as a deep thinker on a par with say John Dos Passos, but King writes a lively prose that carries an interesting plot to conclusion. If an author is striving to impart some great message through the medium of fiction, far too often the result is pretentious. John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath is a classic, but much of its "message" may because it is structured around biblical themes. Exceptional authors tend to write exceptional books, so one expects both good writing and substance from Sinclair Lewis, Hemingway, Somerset Maugham, Kazantzakis, John Barth, Melville, or almost any of vast army of famous writers of our past. In fiction the most important thing is that the reader be transported by the story and language. Boredom in fictional works is death on the shelf. That is a truism, but what bores one reader may fascinate and delight another. I've never seen much in the Harry Potter series, but my teenage Grand daughter could probably quote you line and verse. In fiction read what you like and let the rest languish.
A final word that will probably not go down well with the A2K community. I've come to greatly dislike modern poetry. I still love, and read poetry written and published up until the early 1960's. In the late 50's and early 60's the work of Ferlinghetti, Snyder, Ginsberg, Bob Dylan and the poetic/jazz novels of Kerouac were spell binding in their novelty. The late Beatnik and early Hippy Movements were almost defined by these poets. The folks we knew almost abandoned traditional poetic forms, and tended to read the free verse rants rather than substantive non-fiction, or even fictional prose. It seemed more significant and certainly easier to write from some boiling inner angst than to carefully craft word by word a poem within the confines of traditional forms. Most of the poetry I've read since, not all but most, is neither insightfully deep nor particularly gripping to read/hear. Where are the 21st century poets who can stand unashamedly alongside T.S. Elliot, Ezra Pound, Joyce Kilmer, or Yeats? The last really book long poem that I regarded as worthy of my time was, Kazantzakis' sequel to Homer's Odyssey.
It is a shame that poetry and song have degenerated into the self-absorbed rants of amateurs who have neither much skill nor insight into anything. To me it seems that many of these recent popular heroes are too lazy to actually do the work necessary to craft rhythmic lines, and too intellectually shallow to think more deeply than their passing emotions. Hopefully the world will see a reconnaissance of poetry and song, because these forms have proven themselves culturally important over the history of literature.
@zeroh,
Hi, I just read a poorly written book with great content and couldn't put it down.
That book has been read in Singapore and is now in Bali to be shared with some friends. I also have people waiting to read it when it comes home to Australia next month.
In answer to your question,.. an awfully written amazing story can be appreciated by anyone, for its content. A well-written boring book can only be appreciated by true lovers of literature, narrowing the potential audience substantially. (in my opinion
)
@Larry Ashe,
Thank you for the detailed answer.
@Larry Ashe,
Hi Larry.
Would you mind dropping me a line? I have some questions I'd like to ask in person about some of what you've written here. Please and thanks - I look forward to hearing from you! (I hope you get this - it is rather timely...)
Please email me at:
[email protected]
Thanks,
-Breck Campbell
@zeroh,
I would most enjoy neither. That is because I enjoy well-written amazing stories. Stories that make me laugh out loud. In other words I like stories that make me lol (laugh out loud)
What do you think about a book with an interesting plot, deep intellectual scenes, and well written. I'm kind of into fantasy and I'm a pretty good writer, but I'm worried there won't be enough people who have the same taste.
