I'm very picky and critical of books that I read!!
For me it has a great deal to do with how developed the Author's writing skills are!
The Author needs to be polished and mature in their writing skills. The writing in a first book is usually very basic in nature and quite immature sounding. So I'm forgiving if it's a first novel. But if the person has written a second or a third novel and their writing skills and/or level haven't improved, I won't bother with their books anymore.
Organization of the story is important. I don't like reading books that seem to jump around everywhere and doesn't seem to have a continuity of flow. Writing of that nature tends to stress me out instead of relaxing me and taking me on a journey.
Character development is hugely important. If the characters are superficial and have no substance, the story won't draw me in. A book is more than words to me: I tend to relate to the characters of a story and visualize them and the lives they are living while I'm reading. Basically I have a movie playing inside my head while I'm reading.
A good balance of detail that allows you to visualize the story but doesn't make my eyes glaze over and think "Ok...enough! Get on with the story!"
Kathy Reichs is an example of an Author that tends to go into way too much mundane and useless detail that it often seems like you are being lectured in a forensic classroom. Some detail is good, but 4 or 5 pages describing different knife blades and the types of cuts they make is just too much!
And of course the subject of the story is important to me. It doesn't matter how well written the book, if the subject is not interesting to me I won't be able to stay awake long enough to read it. There have been a number of "Best Sellers" that I thought were a complete waste of trees!
For me it has a great deal to do with how developed the Author's writing skills are!
The Author needs to be polished and mature in their writing skills. The writing in a first book is usually very basic in nature and quite immature sounding. So I'm forgiving if it's a first novel. But if the person has written a second or a third novel and their writing skills and/or level haven't improved, I won't bother with their books anymore.
Organization of the story is important. I don't like reading books that seem to jump around everywhere and doesn't seem to have a continuity of flow. Writing of that nature tends to stress me out instead of relaxing me and taking me on a journey.
Character development is hugely important. If the characters are superficial and have no substance, the story won't draw me in. A book is more than words to me: I tend to relate to the characters of a story and visualize them and the lives they are living while I'm reading. Basically I have a movie playing inside my head while I'm reading.
A good balance of detail that allows you to visualize the story but doesn't make my eyes glaze over and think "Ok...enough! Get on with the story!"
Kathy Reichs is an example of an Author that tends to go into way too much mundane and useless detail that it often seems like you are being lectured in a forensic classroom. Some detail is good, but 4 or 5 pages describing different knife blades and the types of cuts they make is just too much!
And of course the subject of the story is important to me. It doesn't matter how well written the book, if the subject is not interesting to me I won't be able to stay awake long enough to read it. There have been a number of "Best Sellers" that I thought were a complete waste of trees!
Try some of the authors I listed, oh and Andre Norton! She wrote a lot of books, some a little more hard sci fi - but most with a lot of fantasy theme. She was also a cat and animal lover who worked that into her stories when she could.
Check out used book stores, thrift stores, and even garage sales - as a lot of good speculative fiction never got reprinted or only got a couple printings.
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Thank you, now I don't have to write out my own post. 
