Judging Whether a Book Is Good or Bad - Essay Example

A ‘Good’ Book Judging whether a book is ‘good’ or ‘bad’ is really a matter of personal preference. A person’s opinion of a book may be influenced by other people’s judgment of it, but ultimately it is one’s own criteria which will prevail. I have my own criteria of a good book. First, a good book makes the reader feel physically and emotionally involved in the story. A reader should be able to relate to the characters in some way. Usually, books that make you emotionally involved are hard to put down. Obviously, bad books are those that alienate the reader from the story. A bad book does not have the elements-- like realistic or sensible characters or strong plots-- that make the reader crave for more. Second, a good book is entertaining, informative, and interesting all at the same time. Even though it is fiction or a creative piece of writing it should be applicable to real-world circumstances. A bad book, on the other hand, only tries to fulfill one sole purpose, either to entertain, inform, or fascinate. This sort of one-dimensional book eventually becomes bland and unexciting because of the monotony of its purpose. Third, a good book enhances the readers’ knowledge or appreciation of reality. It effectively challenges negative beliefs, like stereotypes, and creates new realizations for the reader. In other words, a good book is an effective eye-opener. Fourth, a good book does not use too many jargons. It is easy to understand. A bad book, on the other hand, is too complicated. The writing style is unfriendly. And lastly, a good book is revolutionary. It introduces new ways of telling a story, creating characters, developing a plot, and ending a story. One book that is truly revolutionary, that is, it does not try to strictly follow the traditional standards of writing is Miguel de Cervantes’s Don Quixote. In this essay, I will evaluate three books, namely, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jaws by Peter Benchley, and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K Rowling. Based on the five criteria I mentioned above, I will try to evaluate if each of these books is good or not. This book is a good one. Why? First, one can read it enjoyably and without difficulty. It does not need great intellect to understand the story. The central story is straightforward. But what is fascinating about this book is that it is not really a simple story, it is in fact very complicated if one will try to analyze it intently. The story has almost a flawless blending of effect. The plot, the symbols, and the characters all play a role in the overall theme. On the surface, the plot is uncomplicated and upholds what has been stated about the story’s subject matter in a smooth, subjective manner. In other words, the novel does not fail to involve its readers emotionally. One perfect example is the real emotions that the love affair between Gatsby and a rich girl creates. A guy falling in love with a rich girl sounds somewhat generic. But as the story progresses, the events become quite complicated, with betrayal and deception coming into the picture. The novel is entertaining and informative at the same time. The narrative structure of the novel is entertaining because Nick Carraway, the narrator, recounts the incidents not in the sequence they take place, but in the sequence Fitzgerald desires. It is informative because it raises awareness about the condition of the United States in the 1920s, more particularly, the effects of World War I on the nation (Fitzgerald 72). Lastly, the novel encourages the reader to reflect on the American Dream. Did life in contemporary Western civilization become devoid of any essential meaning? The Great Gatsby shows that the American Dream has become meaningless. As depicted in the novel, there is nothing left but a rough quest for riches and the shallow prestige that riches endow. Some rich people, like the Buchanan family, are discontented, bored, small-minded, and miserable. The misfortune of Gatsby is that his unclear longing for glory has been totally confined to his obsession for Daisy Buchanan. Contrary to The Great Gatsby, Jaws by Peter Benchley is quite inadequate if analyzed within my criteria of a good book. If you ask people about Jaws, what they remember is Steven Spielberg’s movie, not the book itself. The movie is more thrilling and more emotionally engaging than the novel. However, the novel is entertaining and informative. It is entertaining because of its demonic portrayal of the great white shark. It unfolds the mystery of the deep sea. It is informative because it actually explains how the shark contributes to the ecosystem. But most importantly, the novel highlights the image of the basic shark-like attitude of human beings; the predatory nature that lives among us. Benchley shows how a criminal is similar to a vicious shark. Before the surfacing of the great white shark, “a black gardener had raped seven rich white women” (Andriano 18), and the entire event had been kept within bound, disclosed in the local newspaper as ‘molestations’ to discourage people from panicking. However, even though the novel is able to entertain, inform, and create subliminal messages about humankind’s shark-like nature, it fails to send its essential messages effectively. The true importance of the novel is overwhelmed by too much emphasis on the viciousness of the shark. Meanwhile, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling, just like Jaws, garnered massive acclaim when it was turned into a blockbuster movie. However, unlike Jaws, the book is better than the movie. The book is emotionally engaging because the plot and the characters—Harry, Ron, and Hermione—embody important events in Rowling’s life (Rowling 8). The connections between Rowling and her characters endow the story with a realistic quality. Because Rowling has knitted her own fears, hardships, and aspirations in her characters, the story appears multifaceted. Harry’s world is unreal in the traditional way, but the emotions of the characters are real. The novel stimulates the readers’ imagination so that they also could live their lives with ingenuity and vision. Moreover, the novel is entertaining because it unravels the mysteries of wizardry. The other characters, like the giant troll, are creatively developed. The book is easy to understand, and quite revolutionary because of its remarkable creativeness and imagery. On the whole, the book is a good one. Works Cited Andriano, Joseph. Immortal Monster: The Mythological Evolution of the Fantastic Beast in Modern Fiction and Film. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group, 1999. Print. Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. London: Interactive Media, 2012. Print. Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. London: Pottermore Limited, 2012. Print. Read More