Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Top Five Favorites

I've been thinking lately about books I love, and what makes me love them, as opposed to books I don't love and why. Because what I love about a book is probably very different than what someone else loves about it. Or maybe my favorite thing is the very thing that someone else greatly dislikes.

So I'm staring at my overloaded, double and triple-stacked bookshelves, trying to decide which volumes I think about the most often and what about the pages inside impacted me the most.

The thing is, there isn't really a word that could describe what I love about all my books. But there is a common thread I think. There must be. So let's see...

1. All my most favorite books deal with relationships of one kind or another. Most of them have some kind of romantic elements, but also I think they deal with family relationships as well.

2. The endings all leave me feeling satisfied because even if all is not happy and well, it is hopeful and I have seen character growth.

3. The descriptions read like background.

4. I love the characters and empathize with them, even if I don't agree with their choices.

5. They make me smile unexpectedly at random moments.

Okay, so there are five elements off the top of my head that all my favorite books have in common. What's on your top five list?

4 comments:

Shari said...

I like your five. It makes you think, too, about what needs to be included in your own stories.

Shannon O'Donnell said...

Characters I love! That's #1 for me. :-)

Angie said...

That's a great list. I want characters I can connect with and care about and enough tension to keep me engaged in the story. Those two things (or the lack of them) are the top reasons I reject stories at Mindflights.

Yamile said...

Your number #1 is my number 1 too. I love relationship stories, and that's why I always explore them in my books too.

I like characters that stay with me, and feel like friends. Even if sometimes they wouldn't be good company :-)