What makes a good book?
We are often asked to recommend books to customers, most often to young people who want to accomplish the vague task of reading more classics. This is what we call “aspirational reading.” They read the books they think they should be reading. Everyone who’s had any kind of desire to smoke a pipe and wear tweed and look intelligent in a rocking chair has, at one time or another, had the same inclination to read the great books by the greatest minds and have some of that greatness rub off on them. I mean, they must be considered classics for a reason, right? But are they, dear book fans, actually good books?
There is one man we’ve met, and only one, who adores the book The Imperialist by Sara Jeanette Duncan. He swears that this book is the bees knees and gives it a re-read annually. Now, many of you might recall that this book is notoriously on Canadian Literature survey courses nationwide, often the lesser evil on a syllabus that would otherwise include Wacousta by John Richardson. Have we read this book? We have not. We, your booksellers parading as smart and reliable literary minds, have not cracked this one yet. Like most poor undergrads taking Canadian Literature, we avoided it narrowly (thank you Spark Notes) and are happy to leave it on the shelf getting dusty. Yet, this book is a classic. Is it any good? It is, to one poor soul.
If a book is popular, does this make it good? OF COURSE NOT scream the hipsters reading this newsletter. Everyone knows that the fewer people know about something, the cooler it is, be it a band, a foreign film, or a book. Just look at the trash on the paperback shelf at Shopper’s Drug Mart, filled with garbage! But, is it all garbage? Haven’t we all, with our doctorates and fine wines and pretensions, curled up with a copy of Flowers in the Attic or Danielle Steele and indulged in some extraneous tomfoolery? I mean, we have. We have all done this.
(Maybe you haven’t, and if so, I’m guessing you are one of these people who wakes up at 5 am to go for a jog, grows all your own produce, and doesn’t own a TV. Kudos to you, the rare breed of perfect person).
The question still remains: what is a good book?
Honestly, we have no idea.
If your booksellers with over twenty years experience of handling thousands, if not millions of books over their careers cannot answer this question, there really is no hope of anyone answering it. The much better question is, what is a BAD book? Bad, book! Bad!
Before showing you our list of presumably good books in this week’s new arrivals list, we will leave you with a list of things that make a book very, very bad.
1. A distinct lack of character arch
2. A distinct lack of plot
3. Any sort of masturbatory memoir written by a friend or family member
4. Self Help books with margins over two inches wide
5. A book with a vocabulary of only 10,000 words
6. A book with a vocabulary of over 50,000 words
7. The sort that is very beautifully produced but contains very little substance
8. Anything you do not enjoy
9. Stories that make you snooze
10. Books recommended by people you hate
11. Books recommended fervently by very pushy people you cannot avoid
12. Books required, for whatever reason, to be read.
Many thanks, and please enjoy this week’s new arrivals.
Much love,
Vanessa & Jason
We may not know what a good book is but we know good art when we see it.
