What makes a book GOOD? What about GREAT?

Question

Share your thoughts, please.

Answer 1

A good book can make you feel a part of someone life and emotions.

A great book goes so far beyond that, that it touches something within your soul and makes you believe. It changes your outlook on life, it creates within you another part of your being. When you read a great book you have ceased to be who you are, and you ARE the person in that book. A great book is not a book, it is another reality, a reality you know you could step into if you could just sweep aside the veil of the imagination.
If you read a truly great book you can, for the span of a few moments, enter a wold of wonder, or terror, or pain, that so sweeps aside the memories of your own life that you forget that existence is possessed elsewhere. A great book will so transform you that when you close its pages you wonder where you are. A great book will so impress you that you will remember its lines and you will forget that they were written on pages, you will remember them as if they we spoken to you with the greatest conviction. A great book is no longer a book... it is you.

Answer 2

A good book is a book you want to read...or should I say keep reading. When you come to an end of a chapter, you want more. You're not relieved. And while you're reading it, you're not counting the number of pages to the end of the chapter...you're not distracted trying to get to the exciting part...because it's not the end that matters...it's how it arrives there. You care about the characters. You care what happens to the characters. You feel like the book captures something "real" about life...even if it's science fiction or fantasy...or whatever...the emotions, the humanity of it needs to come through.

A great book has all the same characteristics of a good book. It is probably magnified to a certain degree in that this is a book that you not only want to keep reading...but one that you CANNOT stop reading. No matter how heavy your eyelids are getting, no matter what time you have to get up the next day, no matter how exhausted you are...no matter how stressed out you are...you are compelled to keep reading. You couldn't imagine not starting the next chapter because you HAVE to know right then what happens next.

I can think of three other big differences between good and great...

1) it is memorable; you could have read it last week or ten years ago...but the book, the characters, the story STILL matter to you, you remember them, you love them.
2) it is something that you want to read again. You might reread a good book depending on how many books you own and what else you've been reading and your mood and whatnot...but you'll go out of your way to reread a great book every year or so. It'll be important to you to revisit a friend.
3) it is a book you can't stop talking about and recommending to everyone.

Answer 3

Lots of things make a book good. It could be an exciting book, a book with great characters, or a book that's really well written. A great book is all of these things, plus something else. A great book has something that, whether the readers are of that author's generation or not, they can understand and relate to the people, the situations, and the experiences described in the book, because the book about more than the experiences described. For instance, I felt such a connection to Ishmael and to Starbuck in Moby Dick, but it's not because I've ever been whaling, or have even been on a boat for more than a few hours at time. I understand the dilemma that Starbuck faced in standing up to Ahab, whether to follow authority or follow his heart, because I have done that myself. I understand Ishmael's experience, which was like that of watching a car accident and not being able to do anything about it. It's about these humans' experiences, but it's also about THE human experience.

Answer 4

Make makes a book good or great is an opinion of the reader. You have to decide for yourself what's just good and what's great. Some people like Stephen King and some people think he sucks. Some people like John Grisham and some say his characters originated from cardboard. It's an opinion. But for me, what makes a book good or great is in the style, what will grab me, and how the writer tells the story. The books I have read that are just okay, I know what I have a problem with, it's in the style. For instance, I haven't gotten into Neil Gaiman quite. I think he sometimes borrows on what I call "King" description, where the main characters describe everything in a cocky, piss *** attitude. Like, the drink stank like someone's piss, to define a cliche. What makes a book anything good is not the writer enjoys his story him/herself. If they don't enjoy it, and are just writing it to impress the snotty "intelligent" friends suck. See Stephen Baxter's Convalescent to see what I'm talking about. A book though if good or bad is up to you.

Answer 5

The Lap Top Easel makes any good book great. Portable Mobile Ergonomic Laptop Computer Desk & Desktop Book Stand with Orthopedic Wrist Support.

Answer 6

I think a book is good if it holds your attention, has good writing and tells a good story. I think a book is great if it has great writing, tells a fascinating story and comes to mind over and over again as the years go by. Also, when you finish a book, if you miss the people you, were transported into another reality created by the author that you can only visit by reading it again. This has happened to me only a few times. What a gift storytellers have been over the ages!

Answer 7

A good book is an interesting story - you can imagine yourself in the setting. A great book is when you put the book down and you are wondering where you are, sitting in your own house, because you were just living within that story you read.

Answer 8

A good book is where an author tells me a story. A great book is where an author makes me feel that I have lived in the story.

Answer 9

A good book is one that catches my attention early on and holds it. It engages me. A great book is one in which I find myself thinking about the characters as if they were personal friends or acquaintances of mine even after I have completed the book. If a book is great, I will find myself reflecting over its contents for quite a while.

Answer 10

A Good book has a good plot And a Great book has a good plot and Characters that you can relate to