What do people look for when reading a book? I know it differs wildly from person to person but do you ever pick up a book with a specific intent, however indulgent? Do you read books for a bit of escapism, for a good story or do you find yourself looking for something deeper?

Do all novels necessarily have to have a resolution? When a book raises questions are you looking for that same book to provide some kind of answer? How do people feel when issues are raised in novels and then not resolved or resolved adequately?

Would be interested to know.

Cheers

Geoff

At the moment I quite like novels where all issues are not resolved, and the novel acts a more of a window into the life of the author. It makes it feel more real and gives the impression of events before and after the time covered by the book.

I do find myself analysing writing techniques and try to pick fault or tips along the way.

Hi Colin,

I'm glad to hear that I'm not alone as I've been thinking about bringing my novel to its conclusion that kind of had me worried. Lots of questions, not so many answers.

To be honest I think it's one of the defining markers of literary fiction. For me a literary novel has to make me really think unfortunately so many writers out there still seem to confuse this and thier writing tends to be heavy on the words but light on the ideas.

I used to see everything being neatly tied up as the sign of a good book, but now I think it's a bit "Hollywood", if you know what I mean - it feels too crafted.

I think a novel needs a resolution for the reader, but not necssarily for the characters. I mean a resolution only in the sense that at the end we need to have it fairly clear in our minds what sort of journey has been travelled, what's been realised, maybe what hasn't been realised, what's changed, what was given the chance to change and refused it. If there's nothing like that, if it just peters out, as a reader I think, 'why did I bother?'. On the other hand, if the wedding bells ring too certainly, then you've got a 'brick-wall' happy ending, where the characters have no life beyond it. Even if there is a big resolution, I think it needs to be written in a way that prompts you to wonder what happened afterwards.

EMma

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And going back to the first half of the question, I do want to be made to think by a book, but I also want to be made to feel.

Which means that when I've got flu I want un-difficult books that do both - favourite detective stories with MCs I do care about, say. And when I want a deep read, I'm prepared to deal with more difficulty in the cause of more complex characters who elicit more complex reactions in me, and more sophisticated ideas more subtly played out.

And actually, of course, thinking and feeling aren't opposed (I'm horrified how many people think that 'mathematics' and 'love' are set up to be opposites!) because to me the two are two sides of the same coin - thinking is a great pleasure, and feeling is fascinating.

Emma

Anecdotes.
I want the author to make me laugh; chuckle; run out and tell the next person I meet the funny/gross bit I've just read.

I do want to be made to think by a book, but I also want to be made to feel.

Well said, Emma. Couldn't agree more.

I want to inhabit someone else's skin, to go where I cannot go, see what I have not seen. I want to hear things said that make me say, "Yeah, you're right," or "How can you say that!"

I want to know what a woman feels when she is in love, what a child thinks when a parent dies, what makes someone want to kill another human being while another will sacrifice themselves for a greater good.

I want justice, reconcilation, love, passion. I want bad made good. I want masks removed, thoughts exposed, lies uncovered.

I want to understand the human condition.

These are all reasons I read stories. Of course they are also reasons I write stories.

I think those things are what make me want to write. My writing usually starts with questions: 'who is this person, and why are they here?' And 'what would happen if...?' And yes, a lot of that is the compulsion to live other lives.

But I'm not sure they're directly what make me want to read, because in reading I'm being given material and ideas, however fascinating, not hammering away at them them myself.

Emma

If I don't get a resolution I feel cheated. I don't mean I want it to end happily ever after but I want to feel that what has happened is the only thing that could have happened considering the journey the character(s) was/were on. The best stories for me are the ones that make me cry at the end because it's all turned out just as it should - in particular 'Sense and Sensibility'. That's why I also love children's stories because the resolution is always just right. (I'm thinking Really young children's stories here, like Janet and Alan Ahlborg for instance.} Also Shakespeare, who knows how to sew up the loose ends.

I want to feel that what has happened is the only thing that could have happened considering the journey the character(s) was/were on

Yes, I think I want some of that too.

I think it's the original function of the novel, which was born in a world that had just given up on the idea of a God bothering to shape our individual worlds. The novel as consolation, as reason, as sense-maker in a frighteningly random world made of plagues and geological processes.

Emma

the novel as consolation, as reason, as sense-maker in a frighteningly random world made of plagues and geological processes

Candles in the windy dark.

Candles in the windy dark.

Yes. It is not a coincidence that the novel emerged just as Newton et al. were proving that the universe, with or without a God, was still clockwork, process-driven, without heart or mind.

If man [sic] cannot bear too much reality, fiction is what makes us able to bear a little more of it.

Emma

Yes to feel and to understand. That's certainly something that I seek from books.

As a recently mentioned in another post of someone once saying we read so that we know we are not alone. I think this ties in to what you're suggesting Emma.

It's no coincidence (nor divine intervention) that humankind is the most advanced of all the animals not only because we understand but that we constantly strive to understand more.

I think one of the greatest things I come across when reading is when a writer manages to tie that thought, that feeling, that hazy mess of ideas you've had floating around your brain into something more solid, something tangible. A kind of 'eureka' moment. A way of defining our previously uncaptured, untamed thoughts. That's probably why we love to quote people so much and why as writers we always feel that little pang of jealously when someone has so definitely and eloquently captured what it is that we're trying to say with our words.

A novel can give us insight to what another human being is thinking - what's really going on in their mind, reassuring us that were not the only one who feels and worries, gets angry and scared and anxious.