This was fascinating and I especially appreciate learning about Gornick's book -- I am a strong believer in what she calls emotional readiness when it comes to finding a book or letting one find you. I also am collecting thoughts about re-reading which accounts for a healthy percentage of the books I read each year. Some books invite a relationship that evolves over time.
Thank you so much for reading! And yes i agree that emotional readiness is important. There's no use in dragging myself through a book I'm not ready for - and who knows how long it takes before I'm ready! It could be a year, or ten. But I think it's worth to keep books that just don't fit right now, but otherwise is in ones general area of interest, in the back of one's mind so it's there to come back to later. I think it's worth trying again, even if the results end up as it being a permanent DNF. And when it comes to rereading, I've been pretty vocal about my relationship to Frankenstein. It's definitely an important book for me and something I feel will stay with me forever
A profound experience is definitely important to me, too, when it comes to what I deem a quality work. Especially when it comes to works outside the western canon, or I otherwise don't think would fit in the canon. And if the story is engaging or thought provoking in some way (intellectually, emotionally), and makes me actively want to keep reading
This was fascinating and I especially appreciate learning about Gornick's book -- I am a strong believer in what she calls emotional readiness when it comes to finding a book or letting one find you. I also am collecting thoughts about re-reading which accounts for a healthy percentage of the books I read each year. Some books invite a relationship that evolves over time.
Thank you so much for reading! And yes i agree that emotional readiness is important. There's no use in dragging myself through a book I'm not ready for - and who knows how long it takes before I'm ready! It could be a year, or ten. But I think it's worth to keep books that just don't fit right now, but otherwise is in ones general area of interest, in the back of one's mind so it's there to come back to later. I think it's worth trying again, even if the results end up as it being a permanent DNF. And when it comes to rereading, I've been pretty vocal about my relationship to Frankenstein. It's definitely an important book for me and something I feel will stay with me forever
A profound experience is definitely important to me, too, when it comes to what I deem a quality work. Especially when it comes to works outside the western canon, or I otherwise don't think would fit in the canon. And if the story is engaging or thought provoking in some way (intellectually, emotionally), and makes me actively want to keep reading
I lean towards profound experience as a marker of literary quality.
I do wonder if we can ever have universal standards for literary quality.