2025 Reading Challenge discussion

Like, do you like the drama? the relationships?
Do you like when there is a lesson to be learned?
Do you like when there is a problem and it gets solved?

What do you like?
What makes a book good?

Usually it's dependent on the writing for me. I can forgive a lot of things for beautiful prose. But I still need interesting characters.

And I hate books that end on cliffhangers. If you're not done with the story yet (or at least the episode, I'm okay with a series that continues), you're not done with the book.

For me it depends on my mood. When I'm on holiday I just want a 'light' read. No thinking involved. And sometimes I like to read a somewhat heavier book, resulting in rereading it, since I want to understand the book.
But usually I read (epic) fantasy, I love to read about the worlds authors can create, how they come up with stuff and how they describe it. I think that is also the main reason I still enjoy the Wheel of Times series, since I can really see the world Jordan created (although I am getting a bit sick about Jordan's repetition, he thinks readers forget everything he wrote and describes everything 12 times in 50 pages, but other than that I still like the books).

I need character-driven books and stories that are well-written. The choice of book also depends on my mood at the time.

For me it's usually about character development, but I also want a plot that I can't predict about 1/4 of the way into the book.

I need a well researched story. It doesn't necessarily have to be plausible but the author must make me believe in it!

Story/plot is very important to me in fiction - when I really dislike a book, the reason is usually that I find it too meandering and aimless and going-nowhere-ish.

(And when I end up liking something better than I expected to - typically "light" urban fantasy and similar - it's because it turns out to be thoroughly well plotted, often with quite a lot of threads coming together by the end.)

But writing/style is important too, of course.

(Additionally, if I'm reading pre-1980-ish genre literature, I'll be very fond of it if it doesn't embarrass me with racism or misogyny...)

For me, it is a mixture of plot and characters. Things have to happen and move along to keep me interested. I also have to care about the characters.

I used to think that detail and description was important but I have read a few really detailed books, where the whole book was detail and I just got bored. I felt like nothing happened in the books and I didn't get to know the characters because the whole books were description.

I do like drama and relationships between characters. I don't care if a book has a happy ending or not and I don't need things to be tied up. I just need an interesting storyline and some good characters.

I'm a sucker for beautiful or interesting prose. That's a big part of the experience for me, the language. And I love fascinating or funny or endearing characters. I enjoy a unique story, sure, but if the writing is good and the characters are awesome, I could probably read a book just about them talking to each other. If I'm going to read a plot-heavy book with weaker writing and characters, then it better have a REALLY good plot. That's okay sometimes too.

Well-written, three dimensional characters
A great plot, with sub-plots
Meaningful
Learning something about another culture
Unpredictable
A happy ending is nice, but not always necessary :)