Oh, to read a book that has the X-factor!

At the RNA meeting on Thursday we were asked ‘What books have we read recently has stay with us?’ For the life of me, I couldn’t think of one and I read a book more or less every week.

Yesterday, I stood looking at shelves of paperbacks in a shop. I don’t know about you, but don’t you wish that you could find a book that makes you go ‘Wow’. I’ve read lots of great books, but none just lately has stayed with me after I’ve closed the cover.

Here are four I’ve loved more than most.
The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller made me cry. The Five People you meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom is so clever and brilliant. The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton is the book I wish I had written. The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx, I never wanted the book to end.

These books are to me, five-star reads. There is just something so powerful about them, in not just the writing, plot, or voice. They touch something deep inside of me. With the ‘Bridges’ it was the fact that their love was never going to be, it’s unattainable, but still it lived and breathed within them. Five People was about how our lives touch each other without us knowing. The Shipping News show me that everyone has a story in them if you just look at it in the right way. The Garden was about how the past and present lives in all of us and we can’t escape it.

To me, these books show it’s all about how the story touches you. Others can read the same book and not feel what you feel.

I have, like many readers, a large collection of to be read books by my bed. Everyone I’ve picked up and read so far has made me turn to the next page to see what happens next. I’ve been happy to finish the book, but none of the stories I’ve read just lately have stay with me, not even the authors’ name. Which I might add I’ve written down so I can remember that I have read the book.

I guess what I’ve learnt so far about writing is: No one can write a bestseller only write what you feel and hope its powerful enough to move other and touch them deep inside to stay with them when they close the book. 

Have a great day,

Paula R C