What makes a book "great." Is there an objective quantity?

Answer 1

Do you mean an objective quality? Either way, no there isn't anything objective about saying a book is great because everyone has different opinions. A group of people often agree that a book is great, but these are the same books that others fight to have banned or just generally dislike. Some of the best classics have been banned to school children (in a school setting), like Harry Potter, Cinderella, etc.

Answer 2

I believe strong characters are what makes or breaks a story. The key, for me at least, while reading is to be able to identify with the character.

The reader should almost feel like they are able to see and hear through the character. They must want to put themselves in the characters shoes.

I personally love the characters Stephen King creates in his stories. Although some nay-sayers would quip that his novels are not great literature, I think he is one of the most talented writers when it comes to character creation. King builds characters for the reader with both physical attributes and actions. He also tends to throw in little quirks of characteristics (words they use, mannerisms, family history) that, although unrelated to the story, fill the character out into a whole being.

Answer 3

An objective quantity?

Objective: is something that is measurable without subject to bias.

Quantity: is a measure.

So your question is:
What is the unbiased measurable measure of a great book?

Great: given unbiased measurable parameters, Great will have to be established by either size, density, mass or weight, or even speed. But what size, density, mass, weight or speed is Great??? Well the answer to that is subjective and therefor biased.

Congratulations. Your question cannot be answered.

That means you actually have asked one of the great questions of our time, or it was a really stupid question. It's a fine line, really.

Answer 4

Is it still being read (pick a number) years after it was written?
Do you get more out of it than just a story and characters; e.g. ideas, new knowledge?
Does it change the way you think about something?
Is it chosen for English Literature courses?
Do you mourn when you've finished reading it because there is no more to come?
Does it have universality?

Answer 5

What makes a book great is the impact it has on you, on your world-view, on your way of thinking, on your awareness of the world around you. The greater the impact - the greater the book!

Answer 6

There are so many intangible factors, that it's impossible to decide on a few. Melville's Moby Dick for instance was horribly panned and didn't even sell through it's first edition and wasn't recognized as a masterpiece until the 1920's.

Answer 7

For me to find a book great it has to capture my attention in the first three pages and not have me put it down without great reluctence, but what I find great and what my girlfriends find great are totally diffrent it boils down to the person that is reading it, the genre of the book, and the interest it holds for that person,

Answer 8

"A book is not wieghed by how much it covers, but how much you get from it"

IN other words, did YOU like it? If so it is a great book.

Answer 9

Oprah

Answer 10

I think a great book is one that you can't put down.