They say that for works of art – even for a good book – it is important to evoke feelings… Some feelings – regardless of whether they are positive or not; anything but indifference and disinterest. Apart from feelings, some books call us to action (manuals, personal and business development books, etc.) while some provide us with necessary information and we learn from them (textbooks, scientific literature, statistical and other analyses).
When it comes to literary works, what I consider as a writer to be a good book is related to feelings. They don’t have to be euphoric, they don’t even have to be very intense, however, they have to be strong enough to keep the reader’s attention; to intrigue him; to convey a message to him; to give him answers to the questions that bother him, to open new horizons or simply to cheer him up and make him laugh.
Accordingly, and in accordance with my definition, a good book is a book that makes the reader think and ponder, keeps his attention enough to want to read the book to the end but not want the book to end; it is so interesting and dear to him that despite the fact that he wants to get to the end (and the eventual denouement), to find out how the plot ended, what happened to the heroes or what message the book carries – he does not skip chapters but carefully reads line by line while he is permeated with the same feelings experienced by the characters in the book; engrossed, completely wandering into another world – the one that the author has outlined for him in his lines, and at the same time, he finds it so interesting that he doesn’t want the book to end.
Those are the books that occupy a special place on the shelf; those books that are happily re-read and recommended to friends; those books in which the writer expresses his virtuosity – to describe, to make a section, to notice, to transfer to paper, to awaken the imagination, to conjure up and paint.
These are books that leave a mark because they touched our souls with their content. Written from the soul.
