There are books for entertainment or distraction and there are books for learning and personal growth. Book reviewers seem to believe that the highest praise you can give a book is that it was a page turner that you couldn't put down. But is this really what you want from a book? Would you ever read a book like that twice?
Compare book reading to eating. Junk food is something you wolf down. It is like a page turner. Haute cuisine is something you eat slowly and savor. It is like a book that you read slowly enjoying the character development and unwinding of the plot. Is your book a big mac? Is it junk food for the mind? Is that what you want? If it is, then I am not going to tell you that you shouldn't enjoy such books. In fact, I will admit that one of my favorite authors is exactly that. I am not above enjoying either a junk food meal or a junk food book. What I am opposed to is writing pundits who suggest that the junk food approach of popular fiction is the only way to write a novel or a story. It certainly is not.
If you are reading junk food books it is like eating fast food hamburgers. You expect each to be predictably the same. That is what you are looking for and that is what the provider delivers. Nothing wrong with that. But, if you are eating at a high-quality restaurant, you would not expect each meal to be the same. In fact, you would enjoy the nuance and differences. If your book is junk food, then there is no point in rereading it. You already know what to expect. Rereading it would be like eating a cold hamburger. You really need a fresh hot one if you are going to enjoy it. But, if your book is haute cuisine, then you may discover something different with each pass.
Here is another analogy. If you receive a catalog in the mail from a clothes vendor, you can leave through it and see if there is anything you like. On the other hand, if you are visiting an art gallery and you zip past the paintings the way you flipped past the pages in the catalog, you will miss everything. You should go through the gallery slowly and enjoy each painting at your leisure. You should go back several times and see the paintings again with new eyes. Would you keep a catalog so you could flip through it again on the anniversary of when it arrived hoping to see something new in it?
Bestseller books are often, not always but often, junk food for the mind. If it was a page turner and the reader couldn't put it down, then hat's off to the author. However, if the reader chooses to read it more slowly and think about it, that is a good thing as well. Perhaps the greatest praise you can give to a book is - I've read it several times and have gotten something different from it every time. What is going on with these two kinds of books? And can one book be both kinds?
Well, the answer, I believe, goes back to the first line in this post. There are books for entertainment or distraction and there are books for learning and personal growth. Books for entertainment or distraction are more likely to connect with the reader emotionally. That is why, I believe, we hear so much about show don't tell. You want the reader to experience your book emotionally. They enjoy the experience and that is why they don't want to put it down. However, books that provide personal growth must connect with your reason. Why did things happen the way they did? What would you do if you were in that situation? These questions cause the reader to think. They are thought experiments that allow the reader to safely confront challenges that they might not otherwise experience. These books provide a magical place for the reader to get to know themselves.
Back to show don't tell. Show allows the reader to experience the book without thinking. But ‘show’ is not very efficient when giving the reader something to think about. If you want to feed the rational brain, you have to tell. And sometimes a lot of telling is necessary. Telling is more efficient and does not waste the readers’ time having to derive everything from the experience of reading.
Can a book be both? Absolutely. That, I believe, is what makes a truly great novel. The reader enjoys the experience of reading the book and is left with something to think about. But they can reread and enjoy a slightly different experience from a slightly different perspective. And they can learn something new about themselves from the new experience.
