Booking Through Thursday

Today's question asks:

If someone asked you for a book recommendation, what is the FIRST book you'd think to recommend (without extra thought)? 

Lately I've been recommending The Hunger Games to a lot of people, being that there's an insurmountable amount of hype involving Suzanne Collin's story, and I get asked about it a lot. If they've read that, and liked it, I'll point them toward Veronica Roth's Divergent or Marie Lu's Legend or (yes, there's more) Moira Young's Blood Red Road. All favorites of mine, all falling in a similar genre.

But typically, I don't recommend a book until I ask someone what their interests are. Or, if I come across a book that I believe someone I know will enjoy, based on their interests, I mention it. I love getting people to read, and what I've found is that I can usually nudge people that typically don't read obsessively (like I do) to get absorbed in a book.

For example, my little brother (who doesn't read, really) bought Max Brook's The Zombie Survival Guide, probably because the title was unusual and he thought it would be funny. But he enjoyed it, so when I started reading World War Z, another of Max Brook's works, I told him about it and he immediately went for it and began to gobble it up.

Another friend of mine LOVES The Walking Dead ~ maybe as much as I do ~ and she told me that she wanted to read more. I pointed her towards Amanda Hocking's Hollowland series. I've yet to know if she's gunna go for it, but I know she'll love it...

My point is that you can't recommend just any book to just anyone ~ you might turn them off of reading, which in my eyes is a tragedy (unless they are readaholics and don't get discouraged by reading a book a two that just don't do it for them). The book has to fit the person.

I can't recommend a book without "extra thought" of the other person's unique interests.

Happy Reading Everyone :)


~ Keely ~