What makes a good book, a good book? There are thousands of prizes for writing, many of which are considered prestigious. Like the Pulitzer or Booker Prize. But how are winners for these prizes selected? Most things I have read say that good literature is writing that changes your mind, or defines something you could not on your own. So what about writing that does not fall into those categories, does that mean it is automatically less valuable? I don’t think so. We tell children that reading is important, and when they are learning, what they are reading doesn’t matter much. That you want them to enjoy what they are reading. This changes as you age though. Suddenly, the content is more important than if you actually enjoy it.
Writing is subjective. As much as it pains me to say, in almost anything you read, the author’s tone is glaringly obvious, and if not, it can be deduced very easily. Which means that absolutely nothing will be unanimously enjoyed. So these prizes are inherently biased. I say this as a girl who dreams of her writing one day being awarded one of these accolades , I do not exclude myself from this. But what about writing for simpler people? I mean for children, for young adults, for audiences that don’t wish to contemplate their morals all the time. For authors, who don’t wish to contemplate their morals all the time.This does not make their writing or reading less than, it is just different. Romance novels and children’s stories are not winning many prizes though. So where did this idea come from, that something must be thought provoking and prestigious to be acknowledged?
For so long, reading and writing was a privilege. To know, as well as to enjoy. With schooling not being available to everyone, it was considered a blessing, so people made the most of it. Books were not to be taken for granted, and writing was an opportunity to define something. Be it yourself or an ideal. Now though, things have changed, everything is massively more accessible. Writing does not always have to be so sacred, it is okay to enjoy unembellished feel good stories. So how we view literature should too. This of course introduces a whole new issue of defining qual-