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How do you define a great novel? plus writer Ian Craine’s 6 picks
Is a great novel the one you had the most fun reading? One that transported you to a whole new situation, a new land, a new time? Or did that story unlock new insights? How about one that allowed you to feel understood and less alone? What about the books of childhood, which stripped away all the anguish of being small and vulnerable? Is your favorite one that’s compelled you to read it more than once?
The desire to read
I was born ready, jumping out of my diapers with eagerness to comprehend how written language worked.
My reading list from the start
All printed words that came my way. Food wrappers, cereal boxes, and street signs were intermingled with picture books.
School days
Fourth-grade outings with my best friend were bike rides to the library. There I would tick off readings from the Newberry Medal list (the highest esteemed American children’s books). Kids’ magazines with fiction, grown-up mags that featured stories, books lying about the house, I was starved for reading no matter how much I learned. That included Playboy Magazines, The Godfather, Marquis de Sade. That last one fascinated eleven-year-old me not for the sex (it went over my head), but for how…
