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

[sartorias]

I actually don't care for Swanwick. (That I've read. I admit I haven't tried anything since the Iron Dragon's Daughter with its clawhammer nihilism.)

Yeah, I agree though sometimes it's really hard to keep oneself from exclaiming that X is so much better than Y.

[heleninwales]

I hated The Iron Dragon's Daughter too and it had come highly recommended by both personal friends and reviewers. I've also disliked other books that came highly recommended and it's rather frustrating that I can't read the book that my friends read due to there being something that's grating on me that obviously didn't bother them.

[sartorias]

Yeah, one of those situations wherein the prose was excellent but nothing else about it appealed to me at all. I felt like I was being battered by a clue-by-four that Tolkien's Worldview is Risible.

[whswhs]

I couldn't finish The Iron Dragon's Daughter, but on the other hand I loved the Abhorsen novels.

[sartorias]

Nodding in agreement here.

[sartorias]

Those are by Garth Nix, I believe.

[sholio]

One thing a LOT of people (especially fans, I've noticed) will do that is almost sure to slam the door in the target's mind on the wonderful book the recommender wants others to read is to say, "[book I love] is SO MUCH BETTER than [book person they are recommending to loves]."

Yesss, this, and also its (equally fannish) corollary: "This is amazing and wonderful and you're going to love it!" I think a lot of people tend to do this with things they really like, but most people don't react well to being preemptively told they're going to love a thing, or worse, that they have to love it. Some people are more resistant to it than others; I know from long experience that I cannot make enthusiastic recommendations to my sister or she'll either never try it, or hate it if she does. I have to gently prod books in her direction with a "I really liked this; maybe you will too?" and as little other information as possible. I am similarly resistant to people trying to tell me all the things that are great about a book. I want to discover them

[sartorias]

Yeah, that's a bit of a burden, being told "You will love this book!"

[sartorias]

I had that situation with finding books for kid readers. Especially when I began to suss out that they'd say they liked popular books because they thought they ought to.

Paraphrasing an actual conversation once:

"Do you like Harry Potter?"

"Oh, yes!"

"Which did you like best?"

"Um . . . them all?"

"What about them did you like best?"

"Um kinda, they're about a boy, with glasses, and he lives in a castle?"

Me. "Did you really read them? It's okay if you didn't. We're trying to find books you like."

(Apologetic kid) "It's just, I don't like monsters."

Turned out she really, really liked Hillary McKay.

[sartorias]

Yup.