Allison Symes's Blog - Posts Tagged "great-books"
The Lure of a Great Book
The lure of a great book, for me, is in its characterisation. I have got to want to find out what happens to them.
For non-fiction, the “character” is the narrative voice and that has to grip me enough to make me keep on reading.
I find it is the characters I remember and from there the plot line rather than the other way around. If someone says Sam Vimes to me, I will picture his character in the Discworld books, then favourite lines by him or concerning him, the overall story etc. It is in that order though.
Once a book has got me gripped, that’s it. I’m away. To ensure I do get a good night’s sleep, I limit myself to a chapter or two. That can be difficult at times but I cheer myself up with the thought I will be having more to look forward to the following night.
The characters/narrative voice do have to get under your skin. They stay with you after the book has finished too. Now that is the sign of a great book if ever there was one.
If I were to ask you to name your five top characters, I am sure you would have no trouble doing that. The problem would be in limiting it to just five.
This is why I think characters are so important. We get behind them, not the plot. We want them to succeed (and fulfil the plot but without the characters the whole thing falls apart anyway).
For non-fiction I tend to recall the authors/narrative voice but when these work really well, I am definitely going to be getting more books by them.
For non-fiction, the “character” is the narrative voice and that has to grip me enough to make me keep on reading.
I find it is the characters I remember and from there the plot line rather than the other way around. If someone says Sam Vimes to me, I will picture his character in the Discworld books, then favourite lines by him or concerning him, the overall story etc. It is in that order though.
Once a book has got me gripped, that’s it. I’m away. To ensure I do get a good night’s sleep, I limit myself to a chapter or two. That can be difficult at times but I cheer myself up with the thought I will be having more to look forward to the following night.
The characters/narrative voice do have to get under your skin. They stay with you after the book has finished too. Now that is the sign of a great book if ever there was one.
If I were to ask you to name your five top characters, I am sure you would have no trouble doing that. The problem would be in limiting it to just five.
This is why I think characters are so important. We get behind them, not the plot. We want them to succeed (and fulfil the plot but without the characters the whole thing falls apart anyway).
For non-fiction I tend to recall the authors/narrative voice but when these work really well, I am definitely going to be getting more books by them.
