ANSWERS: 22
  • Wally! in - wheres wally - lol joke i look for harry potter!!
  • Something that has the potential to be tomorrow's reality.
  • Well, to start with you want to be "hooked" ideally within the first several pages. You want tension that SOMETHING either very good or very bad is going to happen. Generally both the elements of good and bad are fairly common. Most readers want there to be some sort of situation brewing, in the making or boom...right there, that the main characters are going to have to solve. How they will solve the problem depends upon the type of fiction you are writing. Mystery, SiFi, Fantasy, Romance, Historical, Techno. I want the story to move along once I'm hooked. I like characters that are intelligent, funny, able to make mistakes sometimes but still recover from them. I want to be forced to wonder WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT and how will it be coped with. Sometimes the ending is an ending and the book is then over. But sometimes it's great when I am left hanging a bit...when I'm already thinking ahead to what the next book could bring in this character's path. When a writer can make me fall in love, empathize closely with the characters...want to BE the characters, because they are strong, faithful, serving a higher purpose, perhaps...or simply because their humor and bumbling makes them HUMAN...when I would want to KNOW the people in the book...then I know I have to have MORE of this writer's work.
  • Something quite beyond reality, much like The Lord Of The Rings.
  • Depth of characters, depth of storyline, and NOT predictable.
  • Something unpredictable and yet exciting with believable characters. It doesn't have to be something that could actually happen. It just has to work in the story in which it was written.
  • I like character development and believable dialogue. I often give precedence to those over plot. Some people are the opposite and value a tightly developed plot more. A good example of the kind of books I dislike are the Dan Brown books because they are almost entirely plot driven with very sketchy characters and frankly preposterous dialogue. The effect is even worse to me in films. George Lucas is a frequent violator. His dialogue is almost a joke. I liken a book to a Christmas Tree. The plot is the tree itself and the characters are the ornaments. A strong tree with no ornaments is just as bad as a tree you cannot see for being encrusted with ornaments. Balance is rare and to be applauded when it occurs. An excellent example of great plot and serious character development would be Time's Arrow by Martin Amis.
  • It has to grab my attention quite quickly, and I like novels that are a bit different from the norm.
  • I give it the first paragraph. If it doesnt bite- neither do I.
  • Logical believability, or feasability. I enjoy fantasy books when you establish a set of rules and then live by them in your story. I need good characters with good storyline, not sensationalism. I need intensity, not flagrancy, I need emotion, not vulgarity. I need to be drawn in, intrigued, tricked, then shown the answer. I've closed many a book and disposed of it within a chapter for the lack of these things.
  • Something that makes the reader yell at the characer and get mad. An unexpected sad things. Like tragic sad. Especially a sad ending.
  • I like character driven novels. Plot is a secondary consideration. I prefer an economical style to verbosity and redundant descriptive material (I don't have to repeatedly hear that the town is small). I want the plot sequences to be believable, which is not the same as "predictable".
  • A story that draws me into it, that makes me feel at home in it. Characters that I can identify with, and action that keeps my adrenaline level elevated. My favorite subjects are Sea stories, SciFi, Military espionage, cop stories.
  • I first choose an historical novel, especially one that has some of the secondary characters who are recognizeable figures in history, some whom the reader could likely find upon doing minimal research. I enjoy getting into the day to day routine of the main characters, who are likely average type people set in the time frame. What are their mores and social expectations? These are presented in a very subtle manner within conversations and setting descriptions. One outstanding example is *The Devil in the White City* written by Erik Larson. The time frame includes the preparation for and during the 1898 Columbia World Exposition (Chicago World's Fair). The main characters are also actual historical figures. I don't require this to be, but it is a big plus. One main character is the head of the Fair's committee. The other character is America's first reputed serial killer. It is a dual story with some intersection of action. When reading this type of story, my imagination should be able to conjure up the sights, smells, tastes and sounds.
  • Good wordplay .. a storyline that keeps you hanging on to every word .. not being able to predict the culprit or ending.. an author who can tell the story without overwriting it. A story that is unique in its own right.. not following the same storyline of others.. James Patterson and Dean Koontz are my two favorite authors at present for mystery, suspense and thriller.
  • I like simple yet interesting characters and readable dialogue nothing to complex. I also like books which are in the fantasy genre, especially if there are vampires involved. A good saga is The Saga of Darren Shan
  • it all breaks down on what kind of books you like to read personaly. either adventure. or romance-comedy
  • Strong characters and a hard adventurous story that has a hook and hold onto you till the fish is landed and cooked
  • Suspense, intelligence, thrills and something enthralling and original.
  • The good stuff I look for.
  • for it to be interesting
  • A plot that moves along at moderately quick pace. Not too quick but not too slow for one to lose interest. Characters one finds interesting and care for. A plot that hold's the reader's interest. If historical details are accurate. To me that last one is especially important since I love historical fiction. Now if the fiction is Scifi it doesn't of course need to be realistic However it should be a plot one can relate to.

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