Recommending books is tricky, because reading is
subjective.
I am reluctant to read a book that someone recommends
with, “Oh, you’ll love it.” It puts too much pressure on me. What if I don’t
love it? What if I read it and the book only confirms me in thinking you are
crazy? No, say that you loved it, but don’t say I’ll love it. You
can recommend it, but you can’t tell me how to feel about it.
Daughter Mary Beth recently called her mother and said,
“Don’t read that book I recommended to you, mother. It’s awful.” It had been
recommended to her by a usually reliable friend, and she had passed on the
recommendation before reading the book.
She said the story wasn’t bad, but there were so many
glitches. At one point a man stood up three different times without ever
sitting down. And the clue was the unusual name of the villain, written by the
victim in her own blood, but it turned out the killer was someone the victim
did not know, and the villain’s name was unusual, but even while dying, the
victim spelled it correctly. Etc.
Will Schwalbe, in The
End of Your Life Book Club, tells how he and his dying mother recommended
books to each other. Sometimes the recommended book was not enjoyed, but they
read each other’s books out of love.
I suppose that sometimes we should read a recommended
book, even if we don’t like it, because it’s a good way to learn about the
person who recommended it. But, please, don’t tell me I’ll love it.
John Robert McFarland
Daughter Katie Kennedy’s Learning to Swear in America will be
published by J. K. Rowling’s publisher, Bloomsbury Press, in 2016.
My novel, VETS, about four handicapped and homeless Iraqistan veterans who
are accused of murdering a VA doctor, will be published by Black Opal Books in
2015.
I tweet as yooper1721.
I also write Christ in Winter: Reflections on Faith from
a Place of Winter for the Years of Winter. http://christinwinter.blogspot.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment