Recommending a good book

When it comes to Christmas and birthday presents, I normally buy books. In my opinion, more people should be reading books. I could, and have, went on rants about why books are bet- ter than trying to beat the current Tiktok challenge or defeating your friends (and enemies) at Fortnite.

Don’t get me wrong, I love video games, but games like Fortnite that lack a storyline aren’t high on my priority list. If you’ve played Fortnite you might be saying, “but Jim, there’s a game mode with a storyline.” If you said that to me, then I would promptly show you the door.

“Every child is different. I think it’s important that we don’t have maybe just one or two books that we’re recommending to all children – but rather we cater the books to fit each individual child.” - Rick Riordan, author of the Percy Jackson series.

Riordan is spot on, but I’d like to take it one step further. Replace “child” with “adult” because the same is applicable to adults as well. In fact, I think it’s tougher to choose a book for an adult than it is for a child. The entirety of the literary world is open for adults. That can’t be said for children. At least, I hope the whole wide literary world isn’t open to children. If you’re thinking of buying Ice Planet Barbarians or Jurassic Park for a sixth grader, then we need to seriously have a talk.

Here are some tips for when recommending/buying books for other people:

1. Get to know the person.

I would think this would be a pretty common sense one. If a stranger comes up to me and says “Jim, give me a book recommendation” I’m not going to spout out Lolita by Vladimir Nobokov without knowing the person. I’m going to talk to the person for a few minutes about their reading preferences, if they’re religious, if they have any triggers (something that triggers a traumatic memory).

If the stranger is a pacifist, I’m not going to recommend The Art of War by Sun Tzu. Having said that, I might if they want to learn more about starting fights. However, I’m not going to know that unless I actually talk to them.

One of the easiest questions to ask is “What books do you normally read?” By doing this, you’ll get a plethora of source material to draw upon. If someone tells me they like to read Terry Brooks and Robert Jordan, I know to recommend something in the fantasy genre, maybe Jim Butcher or George R.R. Martin. If they read Nora Roberts or Colleen Hoover, then I know to steer them perhaps to Christina Lauren.

There are some multi-genre writers, like Nora Roberts, so you might want to be wary of that.

2. What’s their level of commitment?

This is a big question to ask before you start recommending books. I’m not going to recommend Brandon Sanderson’s books to someone that says “Well, I like reading, but I’m not looking for an epic saga right about now.”

If someone wants to read, but they’re not looking for something that will get them hooked for months, then I might suggest a romance or a romantic comedy. Or a mystery. Those two genres are, for the most part, quick to get into and don’t last longer than 400 pages.

Fantasy novels require a higher level of commitment. Most fantasy novels require a lot of explanation. The magic system, the different races, the magical creatures. They’re not of this world so explanation is necessary. Even stories like Harry Potter need a certain level of exposition. JK Rowling did an excellent job introducing readers to the wizarding world by having Harry enter it at the same time. Stories like Lord of the Rings, on the other hand, don’t have the luxury.

3. Have they watched the movie?

Okay, hear me out about this one. If they’ve seen the movie, they may or may not want to read the book it was adapted from. Why does this matter? Because if someone really loves the movie, they may hate what really happens in the book. In Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park, the characters are far from how they were portrayed in the movie. In the book, John Hammond was an evil Walt Disney and Robert Muldoon was a drunk. In the film, Hammond wanted to create something that was real and didn’t care about how much money it took. Muldoon was a brave, if not prideful, gamekeeper that thought that he could outsmart velociraptors. Oh, and the island was blown up by the end of the book.

I know, sorry, I should’ve said spoilers.

There is a ton of material in the Lord of the Rings books that didn’t make the cut into the films. I personally thought that was a good thing because I found the book extremely boring. I fell asleep multiple times in my attempts to read it.

Alternatively, if they hated the movie, it opens you up to say, “Trust me, you might like the book then.”

Speaking of reading something, why don’t you do exactly that instead of reading this old rant. Till next time, keep calm and read on!