Thursday, December 15, 2011

BTT (#16) ~ character or plot?

Booking Through Thursday (BTT) asks:  "What’s more important to you? Real, three-dimensional, fleshed-out fascinating characters?  Or an amazing, page-turning plot?  (Yes, I know, they are both important. But if you had to pick one as being more important than the other?)"
A plot is important, but if the story doesn't have characters I care about, I put it down.  Like the book I threw across the room last night.  Yes, I really did that.  I won't mention the title, not even as a DNF book ("Did Not Finish" book), because it doesn't deserve the attention.  The main character was not likeable — she was actually very annoying — and she was beginning to use language for the shock value, since repeatedly describing something as f***ing was unnecessary.  Fascinating characters are the key for me.

6 comments:

JLS Hall said...

I think I have to pick plot over characters for the most part. But I agree that annoying characters can kill off a book really fast. Don't think I've thrown any books across the room for quite a while, though -- the last one was The Scarlet Letter, when I was in high school.

Laurel-Rain Snow said...

I can relate to that experience, Bonnie! I have actually put down books with annoying or disgusting characters, even though the plot might have promised to appeal...

But the characters make it or break it for me.

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Beth said...

I can relate to your experience, too, Bonnie. I find gratuitous profanity annoying, whether in a book or in real life.

I will say that one of my favorite books involved an initially unlikable character---Olive Kitteridge. The more I read, though, the more I identified with Olive...and the more I liked her.

Anonymous said...

I would go with the plot.

http://tributebooksmama.blogspot.com/2011/12/booking-through-thursday_15.html

Bonnie Jacobs said...

Yeah, Beth, I also liked Olive more as the story progressed.

By the way, folks, I always throw a book carefully so I don't damage it.

Melissa Wiebe said...

More often I go with plot than with characters. Here is my BTT.