That special ingredient

 
There has been a distinct lack of posts this month so far from me, but its NaNoWriMo time and the concept of a word count has taken over.  In fact it has become such a personal challenge not to fall flat on my face that I am wondering where I might get a NaNoWriMo app from for the rest of the year.  I am just loving the counting.  Whether what I have written so far is any good, well, they do say the proof is in the pudding.  I guess we'll find out once I complete the first read through.

 

But how is it that you know you have got something good?  What is it that sets one book aside from the next?  This secret ingredient is what we are all trying to reproduce and what everybody is looking for when they pick up a book to read.   One book where this was so evident to me was Captain Corelli's Mandolin.  I am always harking on about this book, so please forgive me another reference, but after completing page one and reading about the extraction of a pea from an ear I was completely hooked.  How can this subject hook me in with the same precision as required for the said extraction?  In all honesty, short of providing you with a stock answer like, 'the writing quality is wonderful', or 'his use of words is so poetic', I can't actually tell you I know.  Sometimes it's like describing the one we love.  It is easy to name things like he makes me tea when I want, takes care of me when I am poorly, he makes me laugh, or we like the same movies.  But usually a much more accurate, if somewhat abstract answer is that there is just something about that person that you cannot be without, but as to what it is, only Cupid really knows.


And this is what happened this week.  At the moment I do not read Kindle books because a friendly neighbourhood thief popped by and relieved me of mine.  But yet this week I purchased a book after seeing it on Facebook and finding myself so drawn into it that I had to buy it.  Right then and there.


The strange things about this are that generally I don't read space novels.  The second thing is that I'm reluctant to get involved in trilogies.  But mainly I don't have a Kindle anymore and reading on my phone, well just forget it.


But there was something that worked so well for me about this story, the idea, the cover, the text, the colour.  Everything combined to make it irresistible.  I don't know what, but I just knew this book was for me, and waiting two weeks for the Cypriot post wasn't an option.

So what is it?  What is it that makes you say you have to read a certain book?  Answer's of an electric postcard please!