What makes a book important or loved?

[ashley]

I'm just curious.

Bonus: What types of books do you think is needed right now?
The answer with the least vague answer will be chosen for the 10 points.

[David Bowtie]

Well written, with a good story to tell.

[Nekobus]

Something universal that touches a lot of people or moves them in some way. I think everyone would have a different opinion about what makes a book important or loved, so there really is no one answer to that question. For me, my best loved books are the ones that gave me something to think about (even if it wasn't completely pleasant) and the most important books are the ones that changed my point of view on a subject. That's just me, so if you're looking for a more general answer, I'm not sure.

As far as what types of books are needed right now, I have no idea how to answer that. I would like to see more books dealing with spirituality, but that's just what I enjoy reading. Perhaps there could be more books on how to treat each other well, but I'm not sure people besides myself would look for that sort of thing in a book.

Good questions, anyway.

[Batgirl]

Usually, there's some archetypal message that people are ready to hear or embrace at that certain moment. Anne of Green Gables hit because who doesn't love a plucky orphan, a little girl with spunk with a sweet, never-mean disposition who makes grumpy old sourpusses fall in love with her and give her a home?

Uncle Tom's Cabin came along at just the right time when the tinder of the Civil War was about to be lit. With some highly sentimental, pathetic, harrowing scenes, this book showed man's cruelty to those not considered even human at one point in our American accounts. Stowe's book was actually waved about at rallies and abolitionist meetings and influenced many still on the fence about how truly awful American slavery was.

Watership Down, a book about rabbits trying to find a new home, hit a major chord. We identified with this group of rag tag English bunnies fighting a fascist menace-- General Woundwort. We instantly understood the importance of standing up to a General Woundwort...you get the idea.

LOTR-- Tolkien is the godfather of pretty much all fantasy writing as we know it. His rather stuffy tale of Frodo and the quest to get rid of some troublesome jewelry still resonates, influences and oh yeah-- the adaptions by Peter Jackson made how many gazillions with people still panting, years and year after publication, to see them over and over? And-- many fans said the books could not be turned into a live-action film...

J.K. Rowling and her Harry Potter books pretty much got kids reading again. And some religions types up in arms over her satanic leanings...if you can actually find any, since Harry and friends are literally fighting a devil for seven books. [ You can argue that Voldy is the devil-- with the snake face, the ability to read thoughts, the ability to gather the weak and stupid and scared to his folds, etc, etc...that he lies, that he's this, that, the other...and that Harry is touted as the savior, is a very Jesus-like figure toward the end of the series, including that prophecy that dictated his showdown with Voldy...but that's a whole other forum and probably some very upset folks right there. ]

Jean M. Auel and her series-- the Clan of the Cave Bear when it first came out was gigantic, everybody was reading it. Neanderthals! Cave people! Ayla! I think the latter books in the series are letdowns but still...

Gone with the Wind-- the Civil War soap opera with Rhett and Scarlett. Boom, it went big far and wide and oh that movie, that big sprawling Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh-centered movie. The bad boy with the heart of gold, the woman willing to do whatever it takes to survive...all while Atlanta is burning. And all very comfortably not taking on the evils of slavery...which made it very easy to go down.

The Flowers in the Attic craze-- ah, VC Andrews and this series were teen girl softcore porn in the eighties. Even when Andrews died and a ghostwriter continued the series...

Huckleberry Finn-- the adventures of Huck and Jim...this book is still getting banned and praised.

Lady Chatterly's Lover-- sex!! It's about sex!!! Banned and damned and read a lot

Shakespeare-- again, big ole influence on many writers, banned for his sex and violence [ it's in there!!! ] and rewritten for families-- bowdlerized.

Darwin-- wrote some stuff about his travels...[ and got it published before this other guy could state the same stuff about oh evolution and so forth... ] which today people are still screaming about and trying to suppress, though modern science has moved past Darwin's initial conclusions. That whole monkeys fun! Go over to the religious section if you want a taste of that fight...or twitter...or Facebook or...

Fear of Flying-- that women like sex, a novel, unheard of thing mostly, got lots of attention

Jonathon Livingston Seagull


In Cold Blood-- the first true crime book written by Truman Capote, we just eat that stuff up, we humans, those books on why killers kill.

And lots of writings from the 1960's, etc...etc...

Twilight-- that handsome monster/insanely powerful male who adores us and no one else but us archetype...it just hits now and then like a giant awful hammer.

[Kk]

A book that is meaningful and real