The books I want to read are novels with a new story (which is hard to find since it seems so many novels repeat the same old stories with minor variations) or a truly different twist on an old story. The characters in these new — or old — stories are loyal and kind, nice until it’s time not to be nice, have integrity, do their best and when they don’t succeed, try to do a better best in some way. Often these characters have a talent or skill, but the story challenges them in ways that those abilities don’t help, and in fact force them try to find ways to use their lesser abilities. (For a simplistic example, a person with great eyesight would be at a disadvantage in a lightless cave and would need to rely on their perhaps diminished hearing.)
These books are also all written with clarity and grace using words and phrases that are sometimes lyrical or out of the ordinary, but always clear and understandable.
The books are of various genres, but at their core they are all great stories with relatability and depth, a sense of wonder and perhaps a touch of strange. No category romance! And not much science fiction or fantasy, either. (A lot of fantasy starts out very confusing and quite frankly, I have enough trouble sorting out the confusion in the real world. I don’t need to bring more confusion into my life.) Some speculative fiction would be on the list of books I want to read, especially if the stories are rooted in an everyday world and only after the story is established does it branch off into extrapolated plausibility (or implausibility).
The books also keep me absorbed without nail-biting tension. Curiosity about what is happening is better for me since tension, like confusion, is something best left to the real world. In fact, if a book makes me too tense, I read the ending, and if the ending fulfills the author’s contract with the reader, giving a satisfying and fulfilling resolution (another thing that’s in all the books I want to read), I’ll go back and finish reading the book with a deeper understanding of the situation.
I’m sure there are other characteristics I’m looking for in the books I want to read, but for now, this will do.
Oh, you want the titles? If I knew the titles of such paragons of the written word, I’d have already read the books!
The truth is, although the books I want to read have all the elements I’ve just described, I read just about anything as long as it engages my attention enough to get through the first chapter. Besides, somewhere in all the sludge are gems just waiting to be found.
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Pat Bertram is the author of Grief: The Inside Story – A Guide to Surviving the Loss of a Loved One.
Bertram's Blog 
January 21, 2026 at 10:46 am
You know, this is excellent advice for aspiring authors, too. Write like this, y’all.
January 21, 2026 at 1:20 pm
Thank you for saying that!
January 21, 2026 at 11:44 am
Lately I’ve been downloading a lot of ‘freebies’ from BookBub onto my kindle. That doesn’t necessarily translate into ‘good’ stories, but they’re in my chosen mystery genre and if I don’t immediately find one engaging, I don’t feel guilty about dumping it. I do buy ‘real’ books occasionally, but they’re exclusively by authors whose writing I trust. I’ve just finished Louise Penny’s GREY WOLF and am looking at her BLACK WOLF next.
January 21, 2026 at 1:18 pm
I just got back from the library with the newest J. A. Jance book and the newest Baldacci book. Both authors write readable books with sometimes forays into deeper stories.
January 21, 2026 at 1:20 pm
I used to have a Nook, but they erased all the books I downloaded from sites other than B&N, so I gave up on it.