The Love of a Good Book

Some people have cigarettes; others have alcohol; some unfortunately have harder drugs. For me, I have……a good book. A good book is very addicting for me; once I’m into it I can’t stop. I literally “cannot put it down.” I recently re-read The Cardturner (by Louis Sachar, a 3-year anniversary for me) and planned to space it out over the course of a couple days; instead I found myself consuming the whole novel (not that bad because it’s a teen book but with some pretty philosophical adult themes) and finishing it, it’s that good. It’s always a good sign when a reader both reads it a second time, and can’t stop reading it the second time even though they know how it ends. Read the book. Seriously, it’s worth it.  

Here are other signs of a good book:

1.)    I felt myself nodding or saying “that happens to me!” several times during the book, like when the narrator describes how his emotions about the girl he used to dislike he now likes, or even mundane things like fearing that his car will break down.

2.)    Have a likable, cute little sister. Even though very few of us have the pleasure of having a fun little sister (I satisfied the little sister-possessing part but don’t think my own little sister would even describe herself as “cute” or “likable”), it’s so much better in a book because they can dazzle us and make us wish we had one.

3.)    Inspiration. I’ve read dark books with important themes like “Invisible Man” or “Of Mice and Men” or “Lord of the Flies” and while they are timeless classics for a reason, they don’t inspire confidence in the human race. “The Cardturner” does; it reminds us that there is still some hope out there, that there are good people, and however “false hope-mongering” it is, gives us dreamers something to feed ourselves. Ultimately, I like these kind of books better, when, at the end, I have to take a walk and just think and just bask in the glow of the book, the goodness and the hope that it exudes. That’s when you know it’s a good book.

4.)    The ending is totally unexpected. I did not see that ending in The Cardturner coming, but it just puts everything together. Authors, I know it seems fundamental, but not everyone does this. Publishers might not care, but readers do.

5.)    It has “perfect motion” in the sense that the story moves almost seamlessly, transitioning from one subject to another in a very logical but sometimes spontaneous way, perfect spaced to keep the reader guessing but enough to keep them hooked and feeding some information. Sometimes authors just don’t get this because they have the ending in their mind already and don’t realize how the story unfolds to the readers; Sachar gets this (he’s had like 20 years to refine his craft and his early works, Sideways stories from Wayside School, weren’t bad neither)

I’ll never understand poetry and why people love it, but from what I understand great poetry is how it flows, how it transitions from one word to the next in an artistic form. A good book will do so it. It will develop characters in a way that allows the reader some room to develop but also put great distance in it. I like to call this “perfect motion” and it applies to many facets of life.

We all aspire to that “perfect motion.” At work, millions of dollars are pumped into getting the most efficient work product from workers, the most efficient way to move products from one place to another (industrial distribution management, something I almost majored in during college). In sports, players try to get to the end result as smoothly as possible, whether with crisp passes or teammates or handoffs to running backs. I try in every writing to get that perfect motion to deliver my ideas to you. I hope I was at least somewhat successful here.

Fantasize on,

Robert Yan