Recommending Books

[sartorias]

Something I've done enthusiastically all my life, but being me, took a very long time to realize that just because I was enthusiastic didn't automatically mean another would be. You'd think I'd get a clue since from my earliest years, I became increasingly skeptical about the assumed authority of literary critics. But I've always been slow on the

Comments

[whswhs]

You know, I was just dealing with that issue; C's niece received her master's not long ago, and we joined the family for lunch afterward, and I ended up talking with the niece's grandfather on the other side, who asked for suggestions in recent SF-I gather than he's read a fair bit of it but hasn't been keeping up (for example, he didn't recognize the name "Vinge"). So I sent him a list that included Bujold, Cambias (The Darkling Sea, his first book, quite a good first contact story), Stross, Turtledove, Vinge, and Willis (the first two time travel novels). Note that most of these were people or specific books that have been widely liked in the field. There were several books I like a lot that I didn't recommend:

Cherryh's The Pride of Chanur, because it's entirely from a nonhuman viewpoint and cultural background;
Flynn's The Wreck of The River of Stars, which is half industrial accident report and half Greek tragedy, perhaps a bit too dark and slow;
Kingsbury's Courtship Rite, possibly my favorite SF novel ever, but the cannibalistic customs might be heavy going;
MacLeod's Fall Revolution novels, which are a bit hard to find and which are more accessible if you have an interest in radical political ideas of several different traditions
Stirling's Nantucket trilogy, which shows both Stirling's interest in S&M and his fascination with military history.

A lot of the problems you're focusing on seem to be kind of in a midrange that I don't often address. I may recommend a book to someone I know well, of whose reading tastes I have some idea (for example, I gave a long established friend A Companion to Wolves for Christmas, and it was quite a success); I may recommend books to people who don't read much science fiction or fantasy, but are curious; but I don't often recommend books to specific people who have formed tastes in an area but whom I don't know well. Perhaps that's a matter of the different social situations where we have such conversations.

Right now we're seeking homes for a few books that we are reluctantly deciding not to move with us later this year, and so we're thinking about "Would X be likely to value this book?" Of course we could sell them to used bookstores, or throw them away if they're not in good physical shape, but finding new homes for them is more gratifying, if possible.

[sartorias]

I agree about homes being more gratifying if possible!

That's interesting. I hadn't though about ranges of people for recs, but you're right. I think I more often get asked by people I don't know, and of course I used to field reading questions from parents when I was a teacher. That still happens if I fall into conversation with someone, mention I used to teach, and they say something like, "Oh, I'm always trying to get my son/daughter/niece/grandson to read. What would you recommend?" I then fall right back into teacher mode.