best written books

[Bramblewild]

There are a few authors whose style of writing I've enjoyed reading. One is Chesterton. His wit and way of looking at things has been very helpful to me.

But for a single book whose writing I've enjoyed most, that I've found more moving than almost any other book I've read, I'd say that would Cry, The Beloved Country. In whatever way he did it, Paton filled his book with both his love and his heartache for his country and the people in it. Since he did some strange stuff in formatting this book, especially with dialogue, it may not serve as a great model for how to write a book, but one may still learn quite a from it, I think.


So he told them, and having told them, closed the front door on the wailing of the women, for such is their custom. Slowly he followed the bent figure up the street, saw him nodding as he walked, saw the people turning. Would age now swiftly overtake him? Would this terrible nodding last now for all his days, so that men said aloud in his presence, it is nothing, he is old and does nothing but forget? And would he nod as though he too were saying, Yes, it is nothing, I am old and do nothing but forget? But who would know that he said, I do nothing but remember?
(p. 87)


Msimangu opened the book, and read to them first from the book. And Kumalo had not known that his friend had such a voice. For the voice was of gold, and the voice had love for the words it was reading. The voice shook and beat and trembled, not as the voice of an old man shakes and beats and trembles, nor as a leaf shakes and beats and trembles, but as a deep bell when it is struck. For it was not only a voice of gold, but it was the voice of a man whose heart was golden, reading from a book of golden words. And the people were silent, and Kumalo was silent, for when are three such things found in one place together?
(p. 81)

I should like to know if any of you have books and authors whose writing you have found to be better than most, too.

 

[Ophiolite]

I should like to know if any of you have books and authors whose writing you have found to be better than most, too.

This was an interesting post and an interesting question. I felt it deserves more response than it has got - so far. Perhaps this can kick start it.

The difficulty in answering it, for me, lies in the fact that when we read for pleasure we are not, generally, observing the writing quality, but rather the impact on our emotions. And emotions can be triggered by poor writing, as well as great writing. I confess, with reluctance, to having been drawn into a Dan Brown novel, despite the formulaic, cliched writing style.

What of writing that is "better than most"? Each time I visit a work by Dickens I marvel at the ease and elegance with which he paints portraits that walk out of the page, as fresh as the day on which they were created. I've found a similar quality of smooth characterisation in the works of Mark Twain, whose wit is razor sharp. Victorian authors in general had a style and class to them.

Robert Ludlum's prose is competent, but where his writing wins for me is in the complexity of the plots. That is the winning feature of one my top three all time favourite novels, The Count of Monte Cristo. I hesitate to comment on other aspects of his writing as I have read it only in translation.

As far as I can determine I may be the only person on the planet who admires the writing of Ayn Rand, while simultaneously deploring her philosophy. I even enthuse over the huge speech spouted by John Galt towards the end of the novel, a speech that even her supporters seem to think is too long.

 

[Bramblewild]

I've read a lot of books, especially Christians books, that have been written in the past few years. There are some things I've picked up on in reading these books, fiction or nonfiction.

For example, in fiction there seems to be this dire necessity to breathlessly jump from one action scene to another. And reading Christian fiction, there's almost a sense that that characters, especially the main protagonists, are so similar to each other that they could almost be swapped from one story to another: they are super-nice all the time, they tend to be naive or innocent, they never do anything really bad wrong.

And non-fiction runs into similar problems: an addiction to anecdotal stories, trite solutions to complex problems, and too strong an emphasis on being "positive" and "encouraging".

At the risk of seeming unkind, a lot of what I've read has just been thin and shallow, the equivalent of eating a fast food hamburger that's been advertised as an expertly grilled steak.

I guess I'm hoping to find out if there are still stories that are more than a series of events following one after another, but that are told with some skill and artistry and insight and thought, with characters who are complex and not just another variation on the same cliches of niceness.

 

[Theophilus2019]

G K Chesterton’s “The Everlasting Man” is a powerful and thought provoking argument for the divinity of Jesus. Well worth reading. But apart from the Bible no book has moved me more in my Christian life than C S Lewis’ “Mere Christianity”. I read this a few months after becoming a Christian and it opened me up to the grandeur of Christianity.

 

[JesseBassett]

the Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks was and IS one of the best written high fantasy novels ever. Hands down.

 

[Therommover]

Reading has always been one of my favorite hobbies, it helped me to relax, escape from all the problems that constantly surround me and plunge into a completely different story. I also want to leave a link to the article for you, click here and you will discover the best books on academic writing to help students. Interestingly, you knew that in order to learn how to write correctly, you need to read high-quality books on academic writing skills.