What is to you, the most important quality in a good book??

ut0pia

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ETA: I am talking about fiction here...
Okay so maybe I shouldn't say a good book, but rather an entertaining book...because a book can be considered good by all literary critics but not very entertaining to me

I love to read books that are in the first person. Genre doesn't really matter although first person is sometimes a no no in some genres...Anyways what I find the most important in a good book, is being able to get under the main characters' skin and see life through their eyes and be able to feel their attitude towards everything, even in my own life after I put down the book.. I like to mentally ponder on how the character I'm reading about would react if put in what happens to me in my daily life, etc...(sorry if I'm speaking like an illiterate haha, I haven't taken a real english class since i've always been in the science and engineering fields until recently but anyways...so my descriptions are probably all weird!!) Sometimes even if a book is in the first person this effect is not achieved and thus I don't like the book...The strange thing is that this is applied to all books that I read..Maybe that's my fetish when it comes to reading
kidding. I dunno if I'm jumping to generalizations about this trend or if I am too whimsical and unappreciative of so many writers..I honestly feel a little bad for this, but I am trying to do some self exploring here and trying to figure out what I like in books because I am sooo sick and tired of reading through loads and loads of bad fiction in an attempt to find something good to read and then when I do find something that I like, I obsess like crazy and ask myself why can't all books have that effect on me lol..Another thing is that the reviews of others don't mean a thing ...people with similar interests with me suggest books to me but I still find them soo boring most of the time while everyone else is just obsessing over them!! Usually discovering something good to read is by chance...
So...I wanted to know about everyone else..Is there any particular quality in a book that you find is a must for you to read and enjoy it or is it just me just being odd
??
 

kiwideus

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Books that don't have vampires that sparkle are good.


I personally prefer mysteries, but I am really fussy with them, they have to be well written or it just goes back. I don't bother buying books anymore unless they are from specific writers, because I know I will get my money's worth out of them.

I also enoy well written psychological thrillers. If there are any good ones out there that can be recommended, I would love to know!
 

strange_wings

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Originally Posted by Kiwideus

Books that don't have vampires that sparkle are good.


On that subject. I don't care what the current trend is, I've read at and beyond a college level since I was 9-10. I do not want to read a book wrote for and intended for children or young adults (Twilight series, Harry Potter, etc). Too much drama, especially teeny drama, and my mind wanders off to think about more interesting things.

I like books that actually keep my attention. I'm not overly picky and read fast so this isn't too much of an issue. The writing needs to be fairly detailed, but not so much so that it drags the story to a halt every time something needs to be described. Don't overdue it and get all flowery with the language, if that's what you want to write consider writing poetry.


Too much emotional stuff and drama. I don't connect to people very well this way and it's not much better in a story, it just annoys me.
That the characters have some morals and don't behave like a teenager if they're supposed to be an adult.
 

sammyp

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I like characters that I end up really caring about. I also appreciate an author who isn't afraid to kill someone off, no matter how attached the reader may have become to that character. Generally, because I read a lot of sci-fi and fantasy, a good book for me is one where the world is so realistically conjured that i find myself day-dreaming about what I would get up to if I was living in it
 

mrblanche

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I've always liked science fiction, but I like it to be something that really inspires some thought. Asimov's "Black Widower" stories come to mind, but the Foundation series is good, too. He once remarked that he went back and re-read them himself, and he was amazed at how little actually happened, and how much was narrative.

The "Last Man On Earth" type of books and stories fascinate me, too.

I'm not a romance reader, but I came across one recently that I found interesting, "Wicked Weaves." It's about a murder at a Renaissance Faire. Apparently the first in a series. The next one comes out next month.

I've read all of Garrison Keillor's fiction, and Jimmy Buffett's. Does that cover the gamut?

On the other hand, I once had a college professor whose opinion of a "good book" was one that had a leather binding and gold inlaid title on the spine.
 

sammyp

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My ultimate "last man on earth" would have to be Richard Matheson's: I am legend. That book was awesome
The recent movie wasn't bad, but the book was definetley better.
 

mrblanche

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I have to confess I have neither read "I Am Legend," nor seen the latest movie. I did see "Omega Man," which was another version of the same movie.

If you haven't read it, "War Day," by Whitley Streiber and another author, is probably one of the best of the genre.

I have enjoyed some science fiction with convoluted plots. Ann McCaffrey's "Chanur's Pride" series probably best exemplifies that, dropping hints and clues about plots within plots. And after you've read the whole series, you still ask, "What did Tully know that made him so valuable, and so dangerous?"

And I enjoy a good romp. How about Alan Dean Foster's "Quozl?" And speaking of Foster...go through a list of his books, and be amazed.

And I'm slogging again through David Gerrold's "Chtorr" series, novels about aliens remaking the earth for their habitation.
 

carolina

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For me it is a book, any book, that completely takes me there. A book where I am inside of the scene, and it is hard to put it down. It can be any type of book, really.
People can laugh, but one series that did this to me was Harry Potter - as soon as I open those books, I am right there, standing next to them, living every single scene
.
My favorite writer - Colombian Literature Nobel Prize Winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez. His books "One Hundred Years of Solitude" and "Love in the Times of Cholera" are nothing shy of fantastic.
Like Water for Chocolate is another GREAT book, and Isabel Allende is another writer I enjoy very much, especially The House of The Spirits.
In general, if a book can't capture me in the first 10 pages, then that's it - I will move on to better ones...
 

sammyp

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Originally Posted by mrblanche

If you haven't read it, "War Day," by Whitley Streiber and another author, is probably one of the best of the genre.
Thanks, I'll definetley try that one


I have read and enjoyed some Alan Dean Foster and also Phillip Jose Farmer (riverworld series was fun) and Phillip K. Dick has done some good ones!

For awesome plots and characterisation, I love Robin Hobb, her Farseer and Liveship Traders Trilogies were amazing!
 

mrblanche

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If you like humor in your "science fiction," Foster is good but Terry Pratchett is better! If you haven't read any of his "Diskworld" books, find one. It's a little like Monty Python with aliens, wizards, ghosts, the odd dragon...and policemen!
 

sammyp

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Of course! I have read nearly every discworld written to date and have a signed first edition of Men-at-arms. I LOVE pratchett's stuff
 

carolina

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Originally Posted by CoolCat

A good Book with a good cofffe PLUS a good Chair,....Priceless!...
Hum.... my super priceless version of that is "A good book, a good cup of coffee and a Hammock on the veranda".... There is nothing like a good hammock... ai ai ai, I miss Brasil!
 

coolcat

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Originally Posted by carolinalima

Hum.... my super priceless version of that is "A good book, a good cup of coffee and a Hammock on the veranda".... There is nothing like a good hammock... ai ai ai, I miss Brasil!
...That´s TERRIFIC my friend....

I want to IMPROVE your version of priceless"-....

Coffe+ Book+ Hammock+ Beach+ Cococnut plant+ sand!...OMG!, the heaven here on earth!....




There´s not hammock on the pic but that´s the IDEA!...
....
 

carolina

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Originally Posted by CoolCat

...That´s TERRIFIC my friend....

I want to IMPROVE your version of priceless"-....

Coffe+ Book+ Hammock+ Beach+ Cococnut plant+ sand!...OMG!, the heaven here on earth!....




There´s not hammock on the pic but that´s the IDEA!...
....
And then there is the ultimate.... adding a stupidly cold beer and some fresh cooked crab and shrimp
 

carolina

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in those circumstances the book becomes a mere detail

after all you need to rock the hammock, hold the beer and grab the shrimp....
 
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ut0pia

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Originally Posted by georgina

I like characters that I end up really caring about. I also appreciate an author who isn't afraid to kill someone off, no matter how attached the reader may have become to that character. Generally, because I read a lot of sci-fi and fantasy, a good book for me is one where the world is so realistically conjured that i find myself day-dreaming about what I would get up to if I was living in it
I think it is the same with me!! I love fantasy but sci fi can get a little confusing to me. It all depends on how the writer introduces everything, and how well it's explained but when it comes to sci fi, I think it is not the time to be vague and some writers are trying to be cool that way..Sometimes it's the same with fantasy too when it comes to some writers like Patricia Briggs.. I really need to be able to see what's going on through the character's eyes and if I can't do that clearly enough I don't pay attention any longer and give up on the book..
It's really cool to read sci fi that is just barely out of the bounds of the real world. I was reading some sci fi short stories, I can't remember the author and no longer have the book with me but it was about genetically engineering people, and then people were suing their parents, etc and I thought that was really cool because I can see that happening in the future one day lol..

Originally Posted by carolinalima

For me it is a book, any book, that completely takes me there. A book where I am inside of the scene, and it is hard to put it down. It can be any type of book, really.
People can laugh, but one series that did this to me was Harry Potter - as soon as I open those books, I am right there, standing next to them, living every single scene
.
My favorite writer - Colombian Literature Nobel Prize Winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez. His books "One Hundred Years of Solitude" and "Love in the Times of Cholera" are nothing shy of fantastic.
Like Water for Chocolate is another GREAT book, and Isabel Allende is another writer I enjoy very much, especially The House of The Spirits.
In general, if a book can't capture me in the first 10 pages, then that's it - I will move on to better ones...
I love Gabriel Garcia Marquez!! Love in the time of cholera is my favorite one by him. I read 2 or 3 others but did not enjoy them as much...
I have heard of Isabel Allende, I think it was on my spanish summer reading when I was in high school...Too bad I chose to read Julia Alvarez instead and didn't like the book I chose..
 
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