The Good Book

 For some The Good Book is a certain Christian book of books called The Holy Bible and for them, it is holy. The word bible that comes from ancient Greek means scroll which is how books began. Others call a good book, what they might be reading and enjoying at the moment. My query is what is a "good" book. I am having, more and more, as an avid reader of books, mostly fiction that has a broad scope, trouble trying to find a book that keeps me wanting to read it. I depend on two sources unlike library hunting haunters or those willing to part with too much money, my condo collection of castoff reads are ones that I often find on the shelves of our condo. The latter are tidied by a male with librarian ambitions. They are immaculately kept so that each volume is precisely lined up in lineup on each shelf. There is no other order so that trying to find a certain author becomes an enjoyable browsing chore. When I find one whose back of the jacket blurb matches my hopes, I look inside and read the fifth page, well beyone the publishers advice to the would-be best seller author, establish a "hook" on the first one. How to select is the next step. I flip through the book here and there to catch the language style, how much is dialogue and how much is idle description. If I see little indications that someone has actually read the whole book and not just the first half, it goes in the maybe pile. For Book Clubs it has been known that some busy persons read the online description written by an AI and then "present" their book at the club. Too many books I pull of the shelf, I see the book's nether regions are far too antisepticked to have its pages turned at all. Not finished. Then I begin reading my book. If it is overlong, it's likely to be so because the author charges more for the length than the content. These expensive "best sellers" are repetitious, monotonous and diseased by secret ghost writers hired to use trite methods in padding up the pages. That sounds negative but sadly it is true even for bestsellerauthors whose names I can't use. A "good" book for me, is one that has meat-on-its-bones or substance, is well edited to remove the Miracle Grow tactics some use, and that makes me think in a whole new direction that stimulates my curiosity. Often times, it's something I find on Amazon by a brand new writer. Some authors are born wordy and use formula guidelines to produce prolifically. They are often what is called bestsellers. They aren't artists but they ought to be. A good book  comes from inside an author, not his/her history for sales but their genius. Writing is art, and the best writers take their unique work personally and seriously. They believe in their words and can be trusted to share them with us having worked hard to offer their literary creations borne of themselves.