/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.18959685]

How do you critique books? What makes a book "good"?

[Anonymous No.18959696]

>>18959685

Depending on the genre, whether a certain variety of positibe attributes can be assigned to the text: is it true/good/beautiful/original/factual, etc.

[Anonymous No.18960116]

>>18959685
While taste is subjective, you can critique a book based on various elements which also apply to a lot of different media.
>Storytelling, worldbuilding
Much like real life, the average person probably can't tell you a lot about their own country, so it makes no sense that some fiction dude from a city knows all the ins and outs unless he took part in them. An ignorant outsider asking a lot of questions and looking for asnwers makes for a way to present the world to the reader
>How characters are handled
Many characters face hardships and have flaws of their own which makes them relatable, that's why character's like the protagonist of the tunnel resonate within schizos. How a romance progresses, going from nothing to slowly becoming something feels a lot more natural than just "I just met you but I'm in love 100%"
>General way to construct imagery
The way you present the world to the reader is important, I can think of certain quotes from books that put into few words what needs to be said, such as Nabokov's "The apartment wasn't just bad, it was russian"
Just saying "A big forest" is a lot less impactful than adding some magic to the mix, something like "There were trees as far as the eye could see and beyond"
If you intend for the reader to get inmersed in your world, you have to give them some details to feel (sounds, smells, etc) and leave some up to their imagination.