Hello Fellow Journeyers,
After much consideration, I thought it may be helpful to have a definition as to what makes a book truly great. Obviously this list will not be perfect, but I want to delineate what the most crucial categories are and why the best books touch us on a deeper level. This also serves the purpose of giving readers a good description as to how Essential Readings and Reviews determines the best and worst books. Let's begin!
Enjoyment Level: Starting out is the most subjective of all the categories that are found on this list. Enjoyment Level is the factor that cannot simply be defined for all people and is certainly different for each reader. This may include specific genres and subgenres that people have a special place in their heart for. Maybe the characters are great, even if the book is not. Maybe the world-building is something the reader loves, but the writing is pretty poor. Enjoyment Level is the category that is defined by simply being your overall appreciation for the story that you are reading.
Emotional Resonance: A crucial second category is one that I find to be of utmost importance in any reading. If you do not connect emotionally with the story, it won't pull you in and make you desire to know more. This can also be described in part by "intrigue" but intrigue does not include connecting with characters, it is simply the idea of having one's interest piqued. Emotional Resonance is when a story touches you on a deeper level and causes you feeling as the story progresses. I can't define when or how a book does this, but it's a combination of character work, realism, and emotional truth that usually gets this to show up.
Flow and Progression: The third category is one that may be more skewed to modern books, but the best books still maintain this principle. Simply put, flow is how organically the story progresses and that it makes sense with what the characters are saying and doing. Secondly, progression is the extension of flow that the story must move along in a way that always keeps the reader's attention. For my reviews, this isn't the topmost important attribute because some of the best books do not have perfect progression, but the flow is still good (specifically looking at older books such as The Lord of the Rings and such).
Writing Skill: This category is one that is hard to describe but can be stated as a combination of the author's ability to match the writing to the story's needs. It is not an author's ability to write flowery prose or be incredibly intelligent, but can include flowery prose and incredibly intelligent stories. It can be plain writing that doesn't feel boring or whimsical writing that has purpose. This simply comes down to how much the author and story's vision lines up. Without this sixth sense, everything can become disjointed and the whole vision of the book is lost.
Philosophy: Finally, we have my highest valued category, next to Emotional Resonance. It can't only be described as theme or facing moral dilemmas. It's when a story harkens to greater truth and insight in the human condition and makes you reconsider what you know. The reason characters don't have their own category on this list is because this envelopes that idea. Characters that are often reflective make this category shine for me, but sometimes it is simply situation after situation that causes the reader to think and ponder the greater meaning. What this category is not is when English professors claim that stories have only one true meaning and that it is definitive fact. Any story that makes one think in regard to their own experience is what Philosophy is and that's why this category is my favorite and most highly scrutinized of all the categories on this list.
Thanks for reading! Leave a comment if you think I'm missing any important categories or if you have other insights.