TOP 5 THINGS THAT SPARK THE READER’S INTEREST
As a reader, I tend to be very choosy when picking a book/write-up to read. Some of the time, I feel compelled by a writeup starting from its title to its last word. Other times, I feel frustrated to read beyond a sentence. Hoping that a reader can as well relate to this, I have compiled a list of what intrigues me to read a book/write-up starting from the least to the most.
5. LENGTH
After years of reading, one of the major things that comes to mind upon grabbing a book/writeup to read is if it would be worth my time. Sometimes when it is lengthy, I cast it aside for later times until I’m less busy. When it is short and precise (especially an article) I immediately read through even though I may omit some lines. Recently, I started reading The Billionaire’s Surrogate on an app called Radish. The first thing I did was to check how many chapters were there and I was discouraged to learn that even though the e-book had more than a hundred chapters, it was yet to be concluded. It is not news to discover that some of these lengthy books/write-ups contain unnecessary information.
4. SIMPLE USE OF LANGUAGE
Personally, I find it hard and unnecessary to read write-ups with difficult words. Of course, the dictionary is always there to help but I am one lazy reader. Once I pick up a book especially if it’s an interesting one, I find it hard to do anything else. There are writers who write in good languages but not in simple languages. When I read Wọlé ṣóyínká’s Aké: Years of Childhood, I couldn’t understand majority of the ‘big’ words and I refused to check the dictionary for them till date. My ability as a reader to instantly understand contexts without having to check a dictionary is a feature which always interests me as a reader. Perhaps, Wọlé ṣóyínká didn’t write the autobiography for a lazy reader like me. >_<
3. EFFECTIVE USE OF DESCRIPTION
A couple of days back, I came across Báyọ̀ Adébọ̀wálé’s Lonely Days. I suddenly remembered that he was the same writer that wrote Out of His Mind which I read back in Junior Secondary School. When I remembered the novel, the first thing that came to mind was the protagonist, Àlàmú and how his character would have been perfectly represented by Donald Glover’s looks in his music video ‘This is America’. Báyọ̀ Adébọ̀wálé’s description of Àlàmú makes me feel as though the protagonist is a movie character. As a reader, the writer gives me the power to create my own image of his characters through effective use of description and this is a feature that will forever intrigue me in a book/writeup.
2. RELATABLE/REALISTIC EVENTS
As a reader, I am mostly interested in ‘what actually happened?’. A little while after publishing few write-ups, I discovered that readers are particularly interested in your personal experiences. Somehow, a real life experience gives us something we can vividly relate to without feeling as though we’re alone in our own messes. It also makes us feel conscious knowing that the story being read is a true one. While I read Nawa El-Saadawi’s Woman At Point Zero, I wished I could meet the protagonist and congratulate her for her brave acts. Though fantasy books are great, majority of readers would pick a non-fiction over a fantasy book.
1. TITLE
The importance of titling can never be overemphasised. Whether it is an article, a book, a blog post or a content writing, a reader is firstly captivated by the title of a writeup. Titles are like the package you give to a product, they either discourage you or draw you nearer to them. The first thing that captivated my attention to The Billionaire’s Surrogate was the title. I was curious to learn about what happened to the surrogate. Did she die? Did she become a mother instead of a surrogate? Did she fall in love with the billionare? I had a billion questions! Even though I was disappointed by the content of the e-book, I cannot deny that I was drawn by its title.
My interests in a book/write-up are really dependent on the above compilation. The length, language, description, storyline and title of a book are major factors that should be considered by a writer when writing. I hope that you as a reader can as well relate to this!
