The Word Cloud

I asked John today what three things make a book 'good'. For me I want a story that captivates me, I want to be able to escape into the book and ignore the word I live in. For that to happen the characters must be believable and relatable.
What makes a book 'good' for you?

I must care about characters. The book could have the best plot in the world but if I don't care what happens to the characters I won't read on. Also a book must have 'readable' prose with no wasted words.

A good book needs characters with believeable goals and actions, not necessarily symphatetic or likeable but with distinct personalities. Thight plotting or fluent language can not save a book if it is devoid of memorable characters. There are some sci-fi books i have enjoyed even if the characters has been slightly bland, but these books usualy had some strong or original idea that intrigued me.

If I am reading in bed when I should be at a meeting, it's a good book. Good books are addictive, and for me, that addiction is a blend of caring for the characters, living into the situation and wallowing in the language. Good books make me cry – and sometimes that's because I know that I could never write like that!

For me, a good novel has to completely engross me in its own world, it needs believable characters that I have some sympathy with (whether or not I like them) and it must be well written. Good non-fiction, on the other hand, must explain its subject fully and coherently, must captivate and hold my interest, and must set my imagination racing.

I need a hook at the beginning and a fast pace. Additionally, like other have said, the characters are extremely important. I must either care very much what happens to them, or be very interested in them to keep me reading. I am not a person who will finish a book just because I started it. Unfortunately, just lately I have given up on several books. The latest one I gave up in annoyance after reading two thirds of the book as I realised I couldn't care less what happened to the utterly boring 2D main character. And that was a Dean Koontz book.

Like everyone above, I need characters I care about in a captivating story. I like the story to start right at the beginning and not have to read through chapters of preamble before the story 'proper' begins.

"The latest one I gave up in annoyance after reading two thirds of the book as I realised I couldn't care less what happened to the utterly boring 2D main character. And that was a Dean Koontz book."

Was this "Relentless", by any chance? I gave in after three chapters.

Do you think a completely loathsome character can carry a book as well as one you really like and care about?

In other words, will you turn the pages just as quickly so see an arsehole get what's coming to him as you will to see something good happen to a nice person?

I was once given some really useful advice regarding MCs. It is okay to have an unlikable MC so long as you make sure that they are very, very interesting. It also helps if they have some redeeming features, or if they change during the story so that they reform. So, I think the answer is yes, an unlikable character can carry a book, but not if he/she were completely loathsome.

"The latest one I gave up in annoyance after reading two thirds of the book as I realised I couldn't care less what happened to the utterly boring 2D main character. And that was a Dean Koontz book."

Was this "Relentless", by any chance? I gave in after three chapters.

Actually, it was Velocity. I know you really liked it, and so did I at first, but it just died a death for me. The character of Billy was so dull and 2D.

Like pretty much everyone else, solid, believeable, strong characters are the main draw for me. However I will put a book down if it either has crap dialogue, or gaping plot holes/inconsistancies.

I was partway through a story recently that I really enjoyed because it was witty and imaginative with a fast pace, exciting plot and great eccentric characters, when I had to stop reading in disgust. The day after being beaten up very badly in a pub brawl and having broken several ribs and an arm, the main character hoovered, scrubbed and tidied his son's very messy flat and then went dancing with a girl. This plot hole annoyed me so much (a person with broken ribs can barely move for pain, let alone hoover and dance!) that I could not bring myself to care any more.

The MC needs to be compelling - which doesn't mean likeable. (I've just been rivetted from start to finish by Zoe Heller's Notes on a Scandal, where the MC/narrator is exactly that.) A world I can see and smell and feel and believe in, however economically evoked.

I have to say, though, that I can't these day be doing with any book which doesn't have top-notch writing, whether it's a tautly, cleanly written commercial thriller, or a sharp, funny rom com, or something more literary where the prose - baroquely original or crystalline clear - is a pleasure in itself, as well as conveying a compelling story.

Emma

Emma - so you havent read the twilight series then :)

Jak, having a teenager in the house, I FEEL as if I've read every bloomin' word. But I never say that a book isn't good, if it keeps several million teenagers reading. And if it keeps the book trade afloat, as Meyer is doing: the market for books grew by 3% last year. 2% of that was Meyer...

One of my tests of a good book is whether I get more out of it each time I read it, but that implies that I didn't get everything first go. Some readers hate that feeling, and that's fair enough, while others love the sense of yet-unplumbed possibilities.

Emma

What makes a book good for me is p'raps a smidge different to other readers.

In fiction or non-fiction, I want to learn something good that I didn't know previously. In the case of fiction, I don't want to read the same plot as done before elsewhere (just reworked a slightly different way - so that rules out a great many contemporary "novels"), and I don't want to read about the same old character stereotypes, no matter how beautifully written they may be.

The second thing that draws me in is excellent humour. If something is making me laugh out loud, I will forgive it many other things.

The third is, like for many others, an originality and a quality in the style of writing itself.

For me, the masters of all three of these things are/were: Douglas Adams, Robert Rankin, William Shakespeare and Bill Bryson to a lesser degree. In terms of scriptwriting, it's Richard Curtis.