Why do some people like books that others hate?

This one is for Bec. In a discussion about "The girl with a dragon tattoo", she said:

"Only just able to return to this interesting thread, I feel no different, I have to agree with Terrance, as I too, found it long and dreary.

I don't need to like or dislike an author, nor do I need to have ... or not have a will in order to enjoy a story.

I wish I did know what that intrinsic factor is, that factor that makes one book so very enjoyable for me and yet another, so very tedious."

I have been doing a lot of thinking about this. And while I don't think I have the answer (I'd be a zillionaire if I did!) I've got some theories. Here goes...

Writing quality
It's not necessarily about the quality of the writing. I used to think it was all about the wordsmithing, that the most experienced, most accomplished writers would sell more books. But that's clearly not the case. Many high-selling books aren't actually all that well crafted. And many well-written books don't sell in huge numbers.

The funny thing is that many readers don't notice the minutiae of how a book is written as long as it presses other buttons for them. Authors tend to be more picky about writing style when reading other people's books, but readers generally don't mind as long as the writing isn't awful. Readers are more interested in content than style - characters, plot, action. They are more interested in ...

Willing suspension of disbelief
When a book connects with us, we forget that it is a story. The characters become real. We stop thinking about the author. We accept whatever science or fantasy rules that the book needs. This is the holy grail of writing.

Authors create willing suspension of disbelief by injecting realism and empathy. They lose the suspension of disbelief when the author becomes too visible. If an author preaches to me I tend to see him or her and not the fictional world.

Empathy
We want to read about characters that we care about. When this is done really well, we will put ourselves into the characters' shoes. We imagine what it must feel like to be going through what they are experiencing - worrying when they are in danger, exulting when they succeed at something. We feel that "it could be me".

Affirmation
Sometimes a book works because it confirms something that we already believe. If we believe that "all men are evil" then we are more likely to enjoy a book that affirms the belief that all men are evil. This is very hit and miss. An author might connect with one group of people but alienate another.

Curiosity and challenge
Sometimes we like a book because it challenges us to find out what happens next. Humans are basically curious creatures - that's how and why our civilization has expanded. We want to know why things happen and what happens next. Some books will hook us into the action by posing a question and challenging us to find the answer, sometimes before the author reveals it.

Pleasure
Rollercoasters. It's all about rollercoasters. Some books (probably all good books) give us a series of emotions as if we were living through the story ourselves. It might be fear, lust, anger, excitement, hatred, liking, caring.

Escapism
We rarely live as exciting a life as those portrayed in books. Reading a good novel can allow us a guilt-free escape to another world.

There are undoubtedly more, but these for me are the main buttons that a successful book has to press. A book doesn't have to press all of these buttons - just one or two seems to do the trick.

That, for me, is why some people like a book and some people don't. It's more about the content of the book and our personalities than any intrinsic skill or how "well" it is written.

As for the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - it was okay but I wasn't blown away by it. I couldn't suspend disbelief when the author preached at me. Blomqvist was such a boring character and so obviously modelled on the author that I started to lose empathy. Lisbeth came across as two dimensional - simultaneously too good a hacker and too pathetic a victim. And I know full well that the author has a thing about men treating women badly, but that doesn't mean that he has to make me watch a rape or that another rape is a satisfactory form of revenge.

Other people's views will differ. That doesn't make it a good book or a bad book. It just means that it connects with some people and not with others. Personally, I didn't care for these characters. This was a roller coaster ride that I didn't want to buy a ticket for.

But if you liked it I am definitely not saying that you are wrong.

And for Bec, if you found it long and dreary that's possibly because you weren't curious about what was going to happen next and/or you didn't care for the characters. Which is just about what I felt too.