What is it like -- to be a great book?
Monday August 11, 2008
Alex Haley was born on August 11, 1921. And, he was to go on in acclaim as the writer of scripts and novels. He's most famous for Roots, which was awarded the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize in 1977. Haley once said: "What Roots gets at in whatever form, is that it touches the pulse of how alike we human beings are when you get down to the bottom, beneath these man-imposed differences."
Some events, or books or people have a way of bringing us all together in ways the extent of which are difficult to pin down or define. We know that some books are just phenomenons. They touch us to the core with a universality, and they stand the test of time.
Everyone has a definition for a classic (and many "great books" become classics) but what is your definition of a "great book"? How do you differentiate "great" from "good"? Have you read many books you've considered great? Or, do you believe that every book partakes in the greatness that is literature? (Some readers refuse to say that they've ever read a truly horrible book). What's your take?
Some events, or books or people have a way of bringing us all together in ways the extent of which are difficult to pin down or define. We know that some books are just phenomenons. They touch us to the core with a universality, and they stand the test of time.
Everyone has a definition for a classic (and many "great books" become classics) but what is your definition of a "great book"? How do you differentiate "great" from "good"? Have you read many books you've considered great? Or, do you believe that every book partakes in the greatness that is literature? (Some readers refuse to say that they've ever read a truly horrible book). What's your take?
Comments
I believe that every book has a value to someone, somewhere, at sometime. That doesn’t mean I will find it great. When I can’t stop thinking about a book, or talking about it to everyone I know, then I begin to consider its greatness. How has it touched me so? Will it affect my children in any such fashion? If I were to read it ten years from now, would it offer the same excitement? I feel that great books are like a sickness. They spread very quickly, and cannot be stopped. It is that ability to grasp the attention of so many people, and endure as a lasting topic that make for a great book. So go wash your hands if you like, stay away from the infected if you can, but a great book will touch you all the same. Just take a look around.