What Makes a Good Book Good?

There's a cliche out there about settling down in a comfy chair in front of a roaring fire, perhaps with a warm drink, and reading a good book while a storm rages outside. To do this you need 1) A comfy chair. A chair which makes the sitter feel comfortable. 2) A roaring fire. A heap of burning logs, preferably in a fireplace. 3) A drink. Liquid. Edible. Heated. 4) A good book. This is the tricky part. A good book is something different for each person. My father likes histories, biographies, and mysteries. I prefer fantasy, realistic fiction, and comic pieces. Somewhere in the universe there is probably someone who likes nothing better than curling up with a physics textbook. To each his own, as they say. Still there are some aspects of good books that are universal.

The first of these aspects is the quality of the writing itself. Truly good writing must engage and draw in the reader. The writing must seem to be alive, to convey the soul of the writing, even if the soul of the writing is that e=mc^2. Good writing doesn't necessarily have to use big impressive word like paraprosdokian or antidisestablishmentarianism, it has to use words effectively. Good writing is not measurable by any existing scale, but must be judged by humans based on the reverberation in their inner self.

The second aspect of a good book is the content. The meat of any book, the content is the story in most books, or the factual content in a textbook. In any book, the content is the part that determines the lessons the reader takes away from the reading. If the content is good, the lessons will be memorable and lasting, if the content is otherwise, the book will fade into the background of the mind, becoming like a piece of furniture sitting in storage that nobody ever thinks about. It's there, you can use it, but nobody cares very much about it, it's no use to anyone, and it uses up space that could be used for something else with better content. Or prettier designs. If the writing is the soul of a piece, content is the heart, and without good content no book will ever be above mediocre.

The third and final piece of a good book is the order. This may seem somewhat anti-climactic, but is essential if thought about. If Heart of Darkness started with Kurtz dying and then proceeded to the outer station before hopping to the unnamed intendeds conversation with Marlow, then went back to the Marlow's experience in Europe, it wouldn't make any sense. Similarly, if a physics textbook started with the advanced material before teaching the basic any prospective learners would feel like their brain was oozing out of their eyeballs. I speak from experience. The order of a book is the nervous system, the circulatory system, and the respiratory system of a book. It is what makes the content and the writing quality able to shine through the muddle of words on the page and enlighten the pilgrims of the page. The order is what makes the sense in our mad world show, paltry though it might be.

Writing quality, content, and order. All three are essential to good writing. Yet in the end, each individual must judge each of these parts and a work as a whole themselves. What one person may love and live their life by and sleep with under their pillow might repulse another person (this would seem to be especially true of religious works). In the end what makes a book good is the love of people for it.