Are there books you remember years, maybe decades after you read them? These are memorable books indeed.
So many books today are just fluff: read them today and forget them tonight. I read many of these. They are a great way to close out the day, settle the mind down ready to drift off to sleep.
What Makes Memorable Books Memorable?
The book speaks to you, means something on a deep level. It can be a philosophy of life or a way of looking at your own life.
Any book can do this. One silly bit of fluff I read helped me realize being short was only the obstacle of being vertically challenged. It didn’t mean I was not a worthwhile person. At the time I read this, I needed that change of view.
Other books can reach out to huge numbers of readers with deep themes. Harry Potter does this. Under the fluff of magic is the value of friendship and loyalty, the putting of others before your own life, if necessary.
My little bit of fluff is from a book long forgotten and rightly so. Perhaps Harry Potter will vanish over time too, but the themes will remain important. Other books like “The Three Musketeers” have these themes.
Themes in Writing
Memorable books often have an underlying theme in them. It is woven into the characters and the plot, becoming part of the story.
A more obvious way is through allegory. “A Rustle In the Grass” and “Watership Down” are two of these. On the surface these books are fun stories to read. Under the surface are the social themes that sometimes don’t become obvious to the reader until after the book is read.
That is the important part of writing books or stories with a theme: they are part of the story. Preaching never really gets a theme across as it is shoving the author’s ideas in your face.
How many memorable books have you read? My answer is: not enough.
