It is an interesting question! A lot of my favorite books are very quiet, like the Little House books. Sure, occasionally the Ingalls have a swarm of locusts or a succession of blizzards, but there are whole books that are "This is how we churned butter. This is how we tapped maple trees. Then we had relatives over for Christmas and I got a rag doll. Look at all the beautiful food in our attic!"
They were just so cozy. Maybe the important part of making a quiet book interesting is to make sure it's not monotonous? The events don't build up to a plot as such, but they are always different and interesting.
It's like, if books were maps, then one with a strong plot follows a specific course on the map, whereas a quiet book is more like wandering over the map just to see what's there.
Re: in the non sequitur department
Date: 2013-06-05 05:16 pm (UTC)They were just so cozy. Maybe the important part of making a quiet book interesting is to make sure it's not monotonous? The events don't build up to a plot as such, but they are always different and interesting.
It's like, if books were maps, then one with a strong plot follows a specific course on the map, whereas a quiet book is more like wandering over the map just to see what's there.