how do we judge a book is good enough?is it entertaining enough?is it informative enough?is it intelligent enough?i have a standard that i upheld to decide whether i deem them good enough to enter harley's library of favourite books...these are the criteria:
- uniqueness - i read thousands of books (no exaggerating here, it's too true, written words fascinate me more than moving pictures like movies or dramas) and after that much of exposure, it's too easy to discern which is gold from dross...anyway, some writers have a knack in putting words together to make such simple sentence or story fascinating...one great example is a book titled rebecca by daphne du maurier (one of my all time favourite author)...i read it over and over since i was 12 and by the second read i realised that the authour had cleverly hidden the main character's name (the narrator)...who is rebecca, you ask?read it...i promise it will worth ur while!
- tickle me funny - i also love funny comebacks or cleverly constructed sarcasm...i love humour in general...the book may not be funny in it's entirety but if it has an ounce of gentle humour or sarcasm somewhere, i'll be there to appreciate it!one of the authors who has never fail to entertain me with her own brand of humour is susan elizabeth phillips...yes she is a romace author but her books are so good, the deserve to be in the list...i remember one scene from nobody's baby but mine (it was that funny it permanently eatched on my head)...jane was so bent on getting on cal's nerve, she purposely picked out all marshmellows from his favourite cereal (he especially loved the marshmellows)...3 boxes of them...and she taped the cereal box together so that he wouldn't detect the tampering...then she strewn the marshmellows in his car...when cal found out, he was so incensed blurted out 'i married a cereal-killer!'....oh it's not funny when u read this but u seriously have to try at least one of susan's books and u'll understand!
- mysterious - mystery always gets to me...it makes me impatient but i stick to the book until the end just to know what happens...or at least have some idea what's going on...one writer that is good in mystery and suspense is michele jaffe...u would never guessed who the real culprit is even though it could be so obvious even towards the end, at least to u...i was stumped on each of her books, so far...i've yet to read her latest books but yup, i'll definitely get my hands on these babies...they are super great!
- family complex - i love reading about families and how each characters deal with them...some families are exasperating but u still love them...some of the are so heartbreaking i cry buckets of tears just reading about them...lisa kleypas maybe a romance author but she touches family issues like no other...some of her books make u see clearly that while u can't choose ur family, acceptance and understanding are 2 most important ingredients in unconditional love....
- personal issues - i love tear-jerkers of any kind...it is especially known in romance books...i can safely say i've cried litres of tears because of romance books...personal issues and tragedies include depression, mental problems other than depression, feeling of being unloved and rejected, feeling of utter worthlessness, poverty, death of loved ones, delicate issues such as rape and child abuse, health issues and so many other things....i can list thousands of authors here but i'll try to list a few whom i remember now...mary balogh, susan elizabeth phillips, lisa kleypas, sherry thomas, laura lee gurhke and brenda joyce...
- intelligent read - some books are fascinating just because they are intelligent in it's simplicity or just plain clever...i can't explain this clearly...some books i just love which comes under this section are folly by laurie r. king and the alchemist by paolo coelho....they are beautifully written...while folly is a difficult and complicated book to read (takes weeks to finish it up), the alchemist is so simply written, they are both brilliant...some other books uses simple stories that just touched u...somehow the hidden meanings behind the whole book become relevant and apparent to u...
- romance - i can never leave this out of my list!!!i love happy endings...while i've read my share of unexpected endings or death of main characters and still love those books, happy endings just makes me feel all mushy and happy...u can hear me saying 'my whole life is already realistic enough/sad enough, i want my share of happy endings, however trite/cliched they might be!'...it's true...one of the reasons people read is to escape reality, or at least find some measure of calm, or to find that humanity and happiness still exist somewhere, somehow...julia quinn and carolyn jewel write good solid romance...
this list is quite comprehensive to me...i love books of any forms, be it literature (my absolute favourite is pride and prejudice, of course, by jane austen and little women by louisa may alcott), or children's books (my favourite is and and what katie did series by susan coolidge, nancy drew series by series of authors under psydonym of carolyn keene and enid blyton's books) or teenage books (the sweet valley series by francine pascal and stephenie mayer's twilight series, duh!) or romance or fiction or sci-fi or any other types, i love them all!
p/s: i noticed that most of my favourite books were written by female writers...then again, female authors tend to write differently from their male counterpart (actually each writer is unique but somehow there's a marked difference observed in writing trends between 2 opposing genders)....female writers i tend to favour write about issues closer to my heart, i'd guess ^^
p/s: i noticed that most of my favourite books were written by female writers...then again, female authors tend to write differently from their male counterpart (actually each writer is unique but somehow there's a marked difference observed in writing trends between 2 opposing genders)....female writers i tend to favour write about issues closer to my heart, i'd guess ^^
0 comments:
Post a Comment