Does the perfect book exist?

Q&A With Shay Each Sunday

This week, I have a confession to make, and it might be unpopular opinion—I do not have a favorite book. Let’s break it down.

Q: Does the perfect book exist?

A: I feel like the obvious answer to this is no, because nothing is perfect. Not one single thing. However, books are perfect to specific people, that’s why they connect with them so profoundly and often say they felt like it was written for them. There are also certain writing techniques and tools a writer has to strive toward crafting the perfect book. But once again, perfect doesn’t exist. That of course doesn’t mean that many people don’t have favorite books or feel like a book is perfect, when someone else may have hated it. I always find that really interesting, and I’m glad that writing is subjective and there is no clear-cut “Excellent!” or “Horrible!” when it comes to a book. (Maybe for some, but I bet there’d still be people who liked it or hated it.)

I feel like a fraud sometimes when I reflect on why I don’t have a favorite book. It’s not like I don’t enjoy reading, obviously. And it’s not like I don’t love plenty of books. I could also name a handful of favorites if asked (although actually I usually blank in the moment when asked questions like that). I think I’m overly critical when it comes to reading, and this could be in part to being a writer, but also being critical in general. I have tons of 5-star reads in my Goodreads profile, even though I’d point out aspects I didn’t like about each of them. When I’m asked what my favorite book is I typically go with The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, but truthfully I’ve liked plenty of other books just as much as that one. I just remember the deep emotions I felt when I read it and it was one of only a handful of books that made me really cry—not just a couple tears—sob. So, it stood out for that reason. But, I also don’t reread books. There are so many books out there and so many I want to get to, coupled with being a slow reader, with having to read other books for work, and having to reread my own books that I’m writing a million times, it just seems crazy to spend that reading time on rereading a book I have already read. I think maybe if I had a true favorite though, I would do that. I may anyway, because I remember loving so many books that I can hardly remember at all now. It’s like rewatching TV shows and movies, we all do that so often without saying, “Well, there’s too many other shows to watch.” I actually usually have the complaint of running out of shows to watch, so maybe I should just be reading more. But, the eyes need a break! And I always remember shows better and pick up on things I didn’t the first time when rewatching. So, this post may be convincing myself to start rereading books.

I also think I have to branch out in genres. It’s no surprise that the majority of books I read are young adult. Yes, it’s because I write YA, but I also just truly love those stories. I’m a fan of thrillers, but I haven’t read near enough. I’m pretty critical of thrillers because even though they’re not usually meant to be the most realistic scenarios, I often find them way too unbelievable. I will say that in the adult genre another book that stands out as a favorite (and I remember feeling it was pretty close to perfect in my mind) was Defending Jacob by William Landay. I guess I would say that within the realm of my criticism there are still a few books that are close to perfect—to me. It’s just so hard for me to call anything perfect because it isn’t realistic. You can’t say that anything is perfect—people, situations, lives, and so on. A lot of art comes close, to a lot of different people, and maybe even is perfect to some individuals, but I strongly believe there is no perfect.

I try to be less critical, especially of things I did not create, but I think a certain level of criticism, especially as a writer is a good thing because we’re all striving for better, maybe even our own sense of perfection, and if you think you have achieved it, then in my opinion, you’ve stopped growing.

There’s a lot of amazing books, several favorites even if I don’t like to name favorites, endless amounts of wonderful art, but there is no perfect—there is only perfect to certain people or always striving for betterment.

Do you agree that there is no perfect book?