Writing in Books

Please remember that anything you read here is just my opinion, and not a fact by any means. This is just the way that I think of books from my own reading experience. Some of my opinions are also influenced by my own, limited, writing experience. Also, if you want more info about any book I mentioned, click on the title to go to it's Amazon page. They are not all linked yet, but I will try to get them all done with in a week or two.  

6/2/2013 Edit: The link in parenthesizes will lead you to the amazon page for the title that the link is. Sometimes I was able to find that book, or sometimes, if it was a series, it will be a box set or the first book. 

In a book review I wrote recently, I talked briefly about the different kinds of writing I notice while I am reading. I thought I would go into a little more detail about that now.

First of all, I am just referring to the style, not the mechanics. I am only talking about the impression I get while reading the book, not their vocabulary and sentence structure. Also, I see this as a scale, not a set of options. Let's start on the "bad" end of the scale, and move towards the "better" books. I put those words in quotations because I am not sure they are the best words to use, but they'll have to do.

Far at one end are things like the (The Baby-Sitters Club #1: Kristy's Great Idea: Classic Edition) Babysitter Club. I mention that series because I really liked it when I was about seven, but more recently, when I picked up one of them, my inner editor nearly had a nervous breakdown. The writing was even worse then the plot, which was pretty terrible.

Then, as you move down the line are things like (the The Twilight Saga Complete Collection) the Twilight series, or Eve and Adam. With both of those books, I enjoyed them well enough while I was reading them, but then afterwards, when I thought about them, I could not think of anything I liked about them. The plot was uninteresting, the characters were mediocre at best, and the writing was nothing to speak of. Not bad, but not good either.

Now we reach the middle. I am never quite sure what to think about those kinds of books. In some ways, they are almost the best kind of books, while in other ways they are just in the middle of the pack. In this section, we many books. Things like Origin, Harry Potter, and Percy Jackson are all in this category. Actually, I think most great kids books fall in this area. These books are the ones where the writing is good, but nothing spectacular, but the plot is good. What makes or breaks a book with this kind of writing is the story. With something like Harry Potter, the words begin to fall away, leaving the story behind. These are often the fastest reads, because the words won't bog you down. You are simply experiencing the story, not the words. Other books in this category don't have as great a story as Harry Potter, and tend to fade into the background, unless they are kids books. Kids love this kind of writing, because it takes no real work on their part.

Now we move into books were the writing is better then the story. It is my personal belief that many "classics" fall into this category. One example of this is Charles Dickens. I have only read a few of his books, but in each of them, the writing struck me more then the story did. This is not to say that the story is bad by any means. I am simply saying that the writing was more impactful the the plot. These books are often the ones that can be the most difficult reading, because it is easy to get stuck on the long words, or the great descriptions, and lost sight of the story, how ever great it might be. I have done this myself several times. I will get too bogged down by the very expressive writing of something like The Red Badge of Courage, and lose interest the story, and then get bored by the whole thing. I think these books are certainly worth reading, but I think that we put a little too much stock in them sometimes.

On the end of the scale are what I would call "great books." In this category are books which have a great story, and amazing writing. I think that these books are often overlooked in favor of the ones  I described above. One book that struck me as "great" when I first read it was East of Eden by John Steinbeck. In this book, the writing as the plot work hand in hand, and are on exactly the same level. Another book I would call "great" is Louis L'Amour's The Lonesome Gods. In both of those books, it is the mixture of the writing and the story that make it great. I think the best books are not always the ones that win the prizes, or are taught in the schools, but they are out there if you look hard enough. They might not always be the easiest reading, but they are always worth it.

So there you have it. My scale on the quality of books. Do you agree with me? Do you think I put those books in the right categories? Where do you think some of your favorite books fall? If you have any more examples of any of these categories, let me know in the comments, and I will happily add them to this post. 

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