Monday, January 09, 2006

What makes for a good book?

Is the ideas? Or the style? Or some combination of the two? Eric Myer thinks he knows: Ideas vs Words.

My own view? If the writer's subject is palpably real to himself, it will come across as real to the reader. In other words, the more intensely imagined, the more effective. Style is most effective to the degree that it grows out of that intense imagining -- otherwise, it's just a stand-in for substance.

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