What makes a good book? Reflection on ‘Something New’ by P.G. Wodehouse

Reading is important, especially when you are a writer. At @thewritersblock we started a #TWBBookClub precisely for this reason; to read as writers and to learn together from books. Books are suggested by members and we choose books that belong to the public domain, to make them accessible to all our members who come from all around the world.

But even when you limit your choice to for instance those on the Gutenberg Project, how to choose from over 56.000 free ebooks available? Most downloaded, most read? The ones that feature on the 1001 books you should read before you die? Or, which perhaps is my personal favorite list, do you choose books that are impossible, a specific list that carries some of my most favorite books, which I wrote about before.

Something New

This month @diebitch choose a book, the reasons for which you can read here. It’s good to read something outside of your own world, that expands the way you think about writing. It’s a great feature that nowadays we have websites recommend you books based on what you’ve read and liked before, but what good is that, really? So, this month it was time for something new. I literally mean 'Something New', written by P.G. Wodehouse (first published in 1915).

People seemed to have doubts. Comedy? Wodehouse, who is this author? Can we take this serious? A story about a pig? @diebitch perhaps should work on her sales-pitch a bit. Because there is no pig in this story (she later confessed that this book is the first in a series, and later on there appears a pig).

What Makes For a Good Book?

Even so, ‘Something New’ is a pretty good book. I’ve had a hard time putting my finger on why it’s actually a good book. What makes a book good? And with this I mean a good book for a writer, which is a very specific definition about ‘good’. I’ve come up with the following three points that I consider important aspect for what makes a book good. I’ve tried not to put in things that focus on a specific genre or that would favor literature over anything else. Even though I prefer reading literature, that is mostly a personal preference which should not be reflected in what is considered a good book.

A Good Book…

• … should make you want to read on. In his series of poetry lessons on Steem, @damianjayclay makes a good argument about how there is basically one rule to writing poetry, and that is that the reader needs to want to read on. The same is true for fiction, and any type of book really. Lose your reader, and you lose the right to call yourself a writer of good books. Which doesn’t mean that you should be able to attract ALL readers. I couldn’t get through lots of books that others would die for, and similarly me recently published books is definitely not for everyone. So maybe we should make this more specific and say: a good book keeps their intended audience reading.
• … should be original in at least one way. This can have to do with style, content, plot, POV, or any other aspect. (See also this article about what I consider original.)
• … should make the reader think. Thinking about their own life, their own way of doing things, and to make them reconsider their own choices--preferably both as a human being and as a writer.

Makes you keep reading? Check!

I must admit it was difficult to put ‘Something New’ aside. I only stopped reading because of being exhausted, and not by the book but because I tried to slip in some time to read after a long and busy day. The book kept me interested from the very start. Why was that? I did wonder about this myself, because neither the topic or the genre were the kind that I normally enjoy reading. So, why did I make it to the end of this book without much trouble?

Part of it has to do with its style. Short sentences and paragraphs that are clearly edited well. I mean, they have no extra information or detailed things going on that are not really necessary. And maybe even more importantly, the style made me laugh quite often. Sometimes I had the impression that with every paragraph, Wodehouse is able to make fun of something. Sometimes the time and the distinction of social economic classes are clearly made fun of, or at least put the test by presenting it in such an obviously exaggerated fashion, something which has been looked at in detail by @anikekirsten in an article entitled ‘Deciphering the Message’. The pace and the swift coming together of loose ends and absurdities definitely help. Good character arcs are also very helpful in this book, even smaller characters as they all have their own problems and struggle with something which seems to far-fetched to even mention here. One smaller character has to deal with the malicious cat of an aunt, letters that may or not be destroyed, and a father that loves gardens more than people.

Original? Check!

Even though the story line was at times incredibly obvious and not very exciting, this was all part of the plan, it seems. Introducing incredible plot twists in a comical way by making the reader think they know where this is going, that is a technique Wodehouse employs beautifully.

But also the characters are very original. They are all very much alive and believable, which makes it both nice to read, but also make the original twists more comprehensible.

Makes you think? Check!

This book definitely made me think. Would I ever be able to give such realistic characters, and so many of them in such a short book, while also giving a huge social critique of the time AND delivering a story with an original plot? Reading Wodehouse truly made me rethink a lot of ‘rules’ I thought must be met when you want to write.

And of course reading 'Something New' by P.G. Wodehouse made me think about what makes for a good book.

[Edit: I found this review online, and it sums up my experience as well... "he is the master of cliche - cliche of plot, of characters, of description, of dialogue. And yet he manages to accomplish all this with lightness and freshness. Which is what makes him so very droll and delightful. His books are absolute fluff, and what wonderful fluff it is!"]

^{Here an overview of more fiction/short stories and poetry by @nobyeni.}