Well, first, I pick up the book. Then, I open it to the first page...and I start reading... [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]
Seriously: a lot of different things. I like lots of description, (half the stuff I know about what things look like, faces for example, comes from reading good book descriptions). It was tough at first to read Tolkien, but now that I'm used to the incredibly wonderful detail of the places I am very happy.
But books can still be good if there are good characters. I want folk I can believe exist. I want to feel like I know them, like I've been traveling with them the whole time. I got that with LotR and Lloyd Alexander's wonderful "Chronicles of Prydain". Action isn't such a big thing for me; one of my all-time favorite books has almost none. ("The Only Alien On the Planet" by Kristen D. Randle.)
Throw in a dragon (or a dinosaur substitute) and I'm a happy camper! (Note: I dislike Ann McCaffrey greatly despite her dragons. Her plots are flat and her characters dull, predictable and too single minded about sex.) Give me Smaug, give me Frank Peretti's absolutely terrifying dragon of Hyde River, give me Isla Sorna and Isla Nublar's fauna and I am happy! *contented smile, runs to grab "The Oath" off the bookshelf*
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WWAHD? (What would a Hobbit do?)
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