what do you expect from a book?

[cacian]

I expect consistant well written language free from slang abuse or deteriorated words.
I also always look for wits humour and new ideas.
I like to think a book is important and so the content must reflect its importance.
To read a book is to remember it for what it means to me and not what it wants to mean to others.

[mal4mac]

Where does that leave "Trainspotting"? Loadsa slaing abuse there, lassie. But it enhances the wit, humour and new ideas.

Also in "Wuthering Heights" there's an evil servant who only talks in slang and uses a lot of abuse. By using 'deteriorated words' he gives us an insight into his deteriorated soul.

Walter Scott also uses Scottish slang - in fact different kinds, some uncouth, some "higher", thereby telling us a lot about his characters. In fact the same is true of much literature - Shakespeare, Dickens,....

[Dark Muse]

I have to agree with mal4mac on your first point. Sometimes slang and deteriorated words is used as an intentional plot device by the author and serves a purpose within the story. Sometimes it is meant to capture the native dialect, or to reflect realistic way of speaking between the characters.

As far as what I expect in a book, for me it really depends upon the book, I do not expect the same thing from all books. I judge on an individual book by book case what my excpectations might be. And sometimes it is nice not to really go into with any particular expectation but just to see where it takes you.

[The Comedian]

Well, I'd like to be able to underline some sentences, think about some characters (if it's a narrative), and have that lingering feeling that there's something more that I missed. I like that.

[papayahed]

pictures

[cacian]

Well, I'd like to be able to underline some sentences, think about some characters (if it's a narrative), and have that lingering feeling that there's something more that I missed. I like that.

What do you use the data for?

[cacian]

pictures

do you mean illustrative pictures like a story/picture style of movie book?

[Declan]

But, Malmac, I don't think the way slang appears in those books makes the same impression on the mind the way cursing/slang does when you hear it in conversation, where it has a rough effect on the mind. The slang that's found in books - Trainspotting one aside for a minute - especially in the classics you mentioned, is usually amusing or it's a small part of a finer tapestry. It's put in place; it doesn't become the dominant tone. Or, like Trainspotting, it's put together in such a way to convey a bleak view of life. It would not be the same as spending an evening with heroin addicts where, along with the despairing, bleak view, you would get the full impact of the language - all of its dulness, pointlessness, and repetition.

I think for slang to have a place in a book, it has to be beautified, isolated to serve a purpose, to convey a view. It doesn't dominate with all of its nauseating real-life, dictatorial aggression. If it did, the book would feel stupid at those moments, or ugly, instead of profound, or beautiful.

That's not to say the author misrepresents slang as it really is. He or she interprets the pointlessness of it, or like I say, the humour it may have - but the grinding tediousness of speaking in that way, it leaves out. That is a big component of the real experience. I think the initial post, the writer of that is saying they like to turn to books to get away from that side of life. And I think that's lovely. Books traditionally - and will remain so perennially - are a refuge to which the harassed mind can take flight for beautiful, gentle expressions.

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

For it to be good.

[kelby_lake]

I expect a challenge.

[Declan]

We expect from a book, or hope from a book, the same as what we hope from the opposite sex: chemistry. If the book has that, we will stay with it; readers are as blind to, and as loving of, as affectionately indulgent and tolerant of, faults as lovers. We love to fall in love with a book, to while away some of the time we're waiting to fall in love with a person.

[Delta40]

A cover with lots of pages inbetween - preferrably with printed words on them.

[cacian]

We expect from a book, or hope from a book, the same as what we hope from the opposite sex: chemistry. If the book has that, we will stay with it; readers are as blind to, and as loving of, as affectionately indulgent and tolerant of, faults as lovers. We love to fall in love with a book, to while away some of the time we're waiting to fall in love with a person.

Great stuff Declan haha. Chemistry is one best way of putting it.
:biggrin5:

[Declan]

lol - glad you liked it, thank you :-)

[dark desire]

Some unanswered longing within me finding voice in the author and from then on a slow journey of togetherness with teasing surprises. The book can be a bit disturbing, I don't mind that.

This is too much expectation from a book. Just like modern relationships books also leave you abruptly and then once you lose a lot of interest they come back with a pleading request to like them again.

[dark desire]

We expect from a book, or hope from a book, the same as what we hope from the opposite sex: chemistry. If the book has that, we will stay with it; readers are as blind to, and as loving of, as affectionately indulgent and tolerant of, faults as lovers. We love to fall in love with a book, to while away some of the time we're waiting to fall in love with a person.

It looks like you haven't been betrayed by a lover or a book yet. ;-)

[Iteration]

Books are boring: Instead I look at pictures and write a thousand words about them.

[IntravenousJava]

I realize this definition is quite dated, but perhaps serviceable enough for the present discussion: if the twofold purpose of art is to entertain and instruct, I am satisfied if it does either, and elated if it does both.