What makes a good read?

As a reader I approach each new book with a question:

Will this book be a good read? Will I have fun reading it? Will this be another one of those amazing books I can’t put down until I’m through it, until I read it to the last chapter?

Or will it, on the other extreme, be one of those books I start reading and where the story intrigues me, but I keep dragging page by page, putting the book aside for days with no end?

Will I even not be able to read it to the end, because neither the story nor the way it is told excites me that much?

As I started writing, initially blog posts, and now a bigger story I keep asking myself – is this one of those stories I would get to the end without a break or would I put this aside and pick something else after a couple of boring and painful chapters?

I can point a few examples of each case, but in any of those categories the examples are completely different from each other. And, obviously, what I consider an amazing book is sometimes a boring book for some other reader.

So, tell me, what do you consider a good book? What makes it an amazing book for you? Or a short story?

Do you have authors that never surprise you – by always delivering amazing stories? Who are they?

Source: Ocram Seven