What Makes a book memorable

[Geekazoid]

HI i'm new and so i wanted to know if people here have a specific way of knowing a book they're reading at the moment will be a favorite. I also would like to know what methods.

For me the best way to see is if i read it very very fast.
The second and even more certain one is that a book gets me to cry at one point. or even one book in a series gets me to cry. That book along with that series will definatly be with me forever

What about you guys

[KizzyShima]

Ooh... Spiffy question...

Well, I think what makes a book memorable to me (while I'm reading it, that is), is that there are no slow parts. And if there are, the author does something to shake it up. I read a book called Mars a while back that I didn't think I'd get into, because it was a lot of sci-fi jargon, but then the twists and turns the author put in made it really good.

But I generally like the last sentence of a book. If that's good, most of the time I've liked the rest of the book, too. Weird.

[Sean L.]

I'm going to have to disagree with KizzyShima and say that in some books, I have disliked the ending, due to it being too cliffhangery, too unrealistic, or too much of a Deus Ex Machina.

And along the way, I wish to welcome you, Geekazoid, to the YW forums. Drop in chat sometime, and meet the regulars.

To address the topic, though, I would say that I tend to know a book is good if I happen to be tearing through the first two or three chapters. I read very quickly when what I'm reading is good, whereas reading textbooks is like swimming through molasses.

Furthermore, though, I tend to have mental cheers or boos when good characters or bad characters do well.

[Peter Murray]

Curious, I can't read the start of a new DD book quickly. It always takes me a couple of chapters to really get into it, and I don't know why.

Rereading them goes faster. It remains a mystery. But it doesn't seem to be stopping me buying her books.

I don't remember if this has applied since I read Door Into Fire in 1980.

[Kathy Li]

If a book keeps me up past 4am on a weeknight, then I know it's a favorite. Diane Duane, Dorothy Dunnett, and Connie Willis do this to me, regularly.

[Olivia]

For me, if I'm reading it during math class (which I do with all of my books) and I don't hear my teacher & classmates yelling at me, (they can get pretty loud)I'm that absorbed, it's good. Heh... My teacher always yells the same thing... "If you don't get an A on your next test, no more books in class!" Ha. I always get A's...

[seabiscuit1009]

What makes a book a favorite...well, first of all I have to have been captivated by it, and not able to put the thing down for several hours until it is done. Off the top of my head, I can say that W@W, HP #6, and the Da Vinci Code have kept me up all night. I know there are a few others out there, but I can't think of them now. Second, the book just has to be good...I don't really know why I like some of the books I do...it's sort of like the book is giving off pheromones or whatever they're called, and the scent of the book's plot is good...makes no sense, but whatever. Ok, I can't think of anything else, and my laptop battery's dying, so I think that's it...

[saash3120]

For me, it's usually when it feels real to me, as in I feel it could actually happen. I always get this feeling when reading YW; the characters are unbelievably believable , and the situations, despite being fantasy/science fiction, somehow seem like they could be happening, somewhere. Same with Jonathan Stroud's Bartimaeus. They just work.

Another point for me is originality. If I feel like I've never read anything like it before, it has a better chance of making it onto my "favorites" list than an unoriginal book.

A third would be a certain sense of the author really getting the story through and through, as in, they know it so well that they can 1) describe it vividly and clearly and 2) guide the story along smoothly. I've read books where the plot is original and everything seems real enough, but something's missing... and I think that has to do with the author's handle on his/her story.

[ShadowWizard]

Hmm... The things that make books memorable for me are if the books make you feel as if you're there with the characters in the story. If they make you feel like you know the characters personally, so that if you saw them on the street (I wish) you could strike up a conversation with them as if you'd known them forever. Also if the story can make you tear up or cry at a point in the story and if the story makes me think. There are some points in most of DD's books where I just have to stop and put the book down for a moment to think about what just happened becauseit was such a shock. Also if the book leaves you craving for more because it was sooo good. I could go on and on about this but I'm going to stop there.

[bluesalamanders]

This is difficult thing to explain/describe/figure out. My favorite books are so diverse, and in general don't have anything to do with each other. And mostly I first read them so long ago that I don't remember, or I've read them so many times since that I don't know what it was like.

The only favorite book I remember what the first reading was like is Sunshine by Robin McKinley. I couldn't put it down, but that is no indication. It happens every so often that there is a book that I can't put down the first time I read it, but it doesn't necessarily have anything to do with how good the book is or how much I like it. For example, I read a couple of Mercedes Lackey books in one evening/night, and I'm not a big Lackey fan - in fact, now, her writing style irritates me and I can't read anything by her anymore.

Anyway, I didn't really like Sunshine at first, because it was so totally different from what I expected. But it grew on me. Possibly one indication for some books is not being able to put it down...every time I read it. Which happens with Sunshine, so I have to be careful when I start reading it, since it's not a short book or an especially easy read.

A story making me cry or laugh out loud - which is unusal, it's true, I don't react openly to the stories or books often because they don't move me like that - doesn't necessarily make it a candidate. Flowers for Algernon and Little Women both make me cry, and neither is a favorite story or book. Tin Soldier (found in the anthology "More Women of Wonder") is one of my favorite science fiction short stories and, while sad, it only makes me tear up if I am already very down.

Blue

[lucee]

For me, I know a good book when I just can't stop reading it. But the the best ones that I will always remember and think about at random, idle moments in my day are those I force myself to read slowly. Sometimes I limit myself to one chapter a day, like eating a brownie one crumb at a time to make it last that much longer. I also find that when I do this I remember it better, as if waiting between readings gives me time to process what happens. That's just me.

[Gryphon]

I love books that aren't shallow and have really cool bad guys.

I can't say about other DD books, but in this last one, I think I got into it quickly and stayed hooked up until halfway through, and the rest was slow. Books are great if they're original. :P

Ooh. Developed characters.

emmm... Ones that you can't stop thinking about.

Lately I haven't been into books so much as manga, espescially one called Fullmetal Alchemist, and everything I see reminds me of it, but that's 'cuz I'm a little obsessed. It's so good.

[MagikMelody]

a few years ago i had an English teacher who said this "Any book that can make you cry, whether for death or life, sadness or joy, is a good book." i have to agree. any book that makes me cry has to be good, at least to me.

also books in which i feel a relationship to the characters, like if i saw that character on the street, i could have a nice little convo. w/ them.

the last thing is that there are no slow parts. now a slow part doesnt mean that it has no fighting or adventure in it. a slow part is a drag, something that doesnt keep me entertained and that i have to read through (or skip when it comes to school novels) just so i can read the next chapter.

when a boks makes me want to be part of it, when i finish it and for weeks and weeks i dream of being part of that book, whether and existing character or my own, is good. (those are the books that keep me reading till 2am and then i relize i have school tomrrow and have to be up at 6. oops...)

of course, magic always makes a good book as well

[Angel_Star]

Unless you're crying because it's so horribly written. lol. But yeah, I'd have to agree with that. Only really awesome books have ever made me cry. I absolutely sobbed reading Little Women and A Walk to Remember. Hehe... There were others, too, but I can't remember.

I like books that let you identify with the characters. I like to poke into their minds and really understand what makes them tick.

Originality's a good thing, too.

What really drives me crazy is when there are stupid errors in the book that the editor definitely should have fixed, like a missed quotation mark or the wrong homonym. It jolts me out of the book. It makes me just read words on paper instead of actually being inside the story.

[fionnaula]

Oddly enough, I'm probably the biggest sap in the world, but books rarely make me cry. Animal Dreams being the exception, I bawl my eyes out every time I read that.

Mostly I know I really like a book if, after finishing it, I immediately want to start reading it again from the beginning. Even some of the most difficult books to get through (The Sound and the Fury? ARRGH), have ended in a way that made me want to re-read.