What’s Good?

Molly MacRae’s short stories and novels are set in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, about as far north and east as you can get in Tennessee without being in either Virginia or North Carolina, where she lived for twenty years. Now she lives in central Illinois, a much flatter place, where she works at the public library connecting children with books.

“What’s good?” I get that question a lot at the library. Sometimes I feel like a barmaid. A patron will walk up to lean against the counter. I smile, say hello, ask how I can help. The answer is often a variation of “What’s good?”
“I’m looking for a good book.”

“I liked the last book you recommended. What else have you got?”

“So, what’ve you been reading lately?”

I smile and serve up the latest and the best.

I love the question, “what’s good?” Sometimes my mind goes blank and I have to give myself a shake to get it going again. It usually does get going again, though, and then I rub my hands together, practically smacking my lips with satisfaction, because I’ve got a reader on the hook; I’ve caught another one.

But what does “what’s good?” have to do with writing? Everything. If you don’t read, read, read, how can you write? If you don’t ask “what’s good?” and then hunt that down and read it, then what are you doing?