Thread: A Ruining Recommendation

Something I'd like to discuss is whether having a book recommended to you lessens your enjoyment of it. This includes the works of literature introduced to students and the likes of lists such as '100 Must Reads!'.

In my experience, entirely personal as it is, my enjoyment of a recommended book is inversely proportional to the emphasis placed upon the book's brilliance by the person that recommended it.

Just an example off the top of my head, one which has stuck with me; Of Mice and Men and The Pearl. Both, in my opinion, brilliant books written by my favourite author. However, because I studied Of Mice and Men at school, I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as The Pearl, and no matter how much I re-read them, I get the same outcome.
I suspect that perhaps this has something to do with the pleasure (or smugness) gained by discovering a great piece of fiction for yourself.

Conversely, I took the recommendation to read books like I Am Legend, Alas Babylon and Earth Abides from a list I found on Amazon.com after I searched something along the lines of 'great post-apocalyptic fiction'. All of them blew me away.


How about it? Agree or disagree?

I don't think my tastes are influenced by recommendations, but I do tend to avoid very "mainstream" books, because I like to stray off the beaten path. This means a terrific book may go unread by me simply because it becomes popular.

I guess we both have some maturing to do : )

But, since you mentioned "great post-apocalyptic fiction", I recommend reading "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy. About a father and son trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic world with nothing but each other to rely on. Won a Pulitzer Prize. You might like it.

I enjoyed the first half of "I am Legend", then I got bored when he ended a chapter on a cliffhanger and started the next chapter in a library or labratory or something. I felt like I was being manipulated by the author, using an intended hook in order to propel a reader's interest through an information dump, and I resented him for it, and never picked up the book again.

But maybe, one day, I'll give it another shot.

I tend to avoid the 'hot' books too. It took me a year to read 'Room' by Emma Donoghue because it was all over the shelves for so long. I read it a few months ago, it was brilliant.

I loved The Road, it was extraordinarily moving considering its lack of detail and, you know, names.

Legend does get bogged for a chapter or two when Robert begins researching the virus, but the exposition pretty much disappears entirely from then on. It's mostly character development, some of it heart breaking.
At the risk of ruining it for you, I definitely recommend that you have another go.

recommendations from publicized book reviews? absolutely not. recommendations from people who know a bit about me and what i may like?
yes. i see you're a fellow steinbeck fan. probably my favorite writer. i love the way he sets a mood. i think i'll take your advice and read "i am legend".
other people have told me to read it in the past. i think i will now.

It's much harder for me to even start a book if a family member or friend has really pushed it. If they've like it, that's one thing. But, "X is so great, you should read it, here take it with you..." No. I'll probably never get to it. Even cracking it feels like an obligation, like work.

But once I'm reading, I either enjoy it or don't.

Required reading? I might have enjoyed them, maybe even loved them, but I'm pretty sure I never enjoyed them as much as I could have if I knew I was going to have to parse them according to a set of questions in a textbook. I loved the kind of class discussions I got in college, though.

For me it depends on the pushiness of the person recommending it. If it's just a subtle recommendation, I'll probably be intrigued enough to check it out. If it's a blatant order, I won't read just as a matter of principle.

Example: "There are a lot ways in which Neville Shute couldn't write, but he could write about the inevitable." (Referring to Shute's "On the Beach.") I bought it the other day.

As opposed to...

"It's one of those books that you have to read more than once to really get it, you know? The allegory is amazing and it's just something everyone should read." (Referring to "Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach.) It took several years after hearing this pitch for me to read that book, and only when someone had a duplicate copy that they gave to me for free did I bother. Incidentally, I didn't find it to be all that interesting, and it only took one read-through to get the irritatingly obvious message.

I like getting recommendations from anyone! I'm always scoping amazon for good reviews on books. I will read anything someone recommends at least once. If I hate it? Oh, well that's okay, I'll just set it down and not pick it up again. The library gets a donation, and I just hit the next one. I do get excited about a book if a friend, that likes the same reading material as me says how amazing this new book is.

I did finally learn my lesson from one friend I have. She reads a ton of books like me. She read this one book, I think it was called Sunshine about vampires. I do love my supernatural stories. Anywho, she told me it was the best story ever, and she couldn't put it down, even to cook supper. I was so excited, I went to the book store as soon as I got off work and picked it up. I remember reading the back cover on the way to the counter thinking it was going to be the best read I'd experience in a long time. Oh, man. I got part way through the book and I thought, "What is with this book? It's so damn boring. If I have to read about this girl baking the best blueberry muffins again, I'm going to puke!"

I started skimming sentences, then skipping paragraphs, pages, chapters, and then finally I just gave up and read the last 3 pages to see how it ended... What a disaster!

I did forgive her for wasting my time, and my money. But stupid me, I listened to her recommendations another handful of times before I decided I just couldn't read what she likes. As Forrest Gump says, "It happens!"

I guess, it depends how a person recommends a book to me, not so much who they are. If they are really excited about it, I can’t help but get excited about it too! I will usually take that high expectation with me while I read it. And, if I go into something with a positive attitude, thinking, I’m going to LOVE THIS! Well, I usually do.