Image courtesy jpctalbot via Flickr
How can you turn down that face up there? Isn't she a sweetie! Wish she was mine, but I found her online looking for an image to capture the thought of "Begging." Because today I'm wondering what you do to get someone to read a book you love.
When I have just finished a book that I thought was 5 star fabulous the first thing I want to do is find someone else out there to talk to about it. Preferably someone who was as taken by it as me. But sometimes I will accept the challenge of debating the book's merits with someone who found it less than incredible. Goodreads is a great spot to find people who have just read what you did. But I generally enjoy talking about it with someone I already know. And if the people I know haven't read it yet, I do what I can to get that book in their hands.
It is one thing to blather on about how great a book is. To give a stirring review. To buy it for someone. But it is quite another to actually motivate them to read it NEXT.
So how do you do it? Do you beg? Do you put the book in their hands and just sit and stare at them until they actually start reading it? Read it aloud to them? Dare them? Bribe them? Create a challenge or assignment around it? I can give people my favorite books until I run out of money. I can even have a sweet puppy deliver them. But I can't force them to read them. What persuasive measures do you go to so that friends, family and strangers don't have to go another day without experiencing the best book ever?
11 comments:
My mom is always an easy sell. She will read whatever I tell her to read. My BFF will read it if it is on an audiobook (and I tell her to trust me, she will love it). Alot of the people in my real life know I read over a hundred books a year and generally trust me if I insist. But the blogging community? That is a tough one. I try to write the most compelling review I can and hope it slips through!
I’m embarrassed to admit that I HAVE begged, I HAVE tried reading aloud, and I HAVE bribed. None of them worked, although I might try reading aloud on a road trip, that way they can’t run away!!!! (Genius, right?) Seriously, though, I feel the same way you do about sharing books and I simply have no idea how to get them to read the best books ever!
Ok - so my question is actually this... have you read THAT many great books? I can't think of the last time I have read a book so good that I wanted others to read it at all..
Lovesmukiwa - YES! I have lots of 5 star favorites that I want to share with the world! It has been a year since I've discovered one (I have re-read some of my faves in the last year though) but I still tell everyone I can about them. (and in case you're curious, they were The Help and The Book of Lost Things)
My Mom will read anything I give her and if I go to the library and get the audio Jason will listen to it in the car. Beyond that it's usually disappointing. I've given away plenty of favorite books but am usually disppointed because of their response or how long it takes for them to read it. That's why a book blog is perfect for me :)
I don't tend to beg people to read something that I've enjoyed. I do recommend some of my books to friends who enjoy the same genre. Because I don't like to be begged or cohersed into reading something, I don't like to do it to others.
Stems from my problems with authority telling me what I have to read.
That being said - I did get talked into reading the "Twilight" series, and it was against my better judgement. I was in fact humouring my friend. Little did I know how badly I get sucked in until 10 days later and I had inhaled all 4 books.
I will admit I read The Help and loved it, even enough to recommend it to someone but I really only have two "book friends" and I think it was recommended to me from one of them first?! LOL
I will have to check out The Book of Lost Things. See - you didn't have to beg me!
I buy multiple copies and give them as Christmas gifts, usually with less-than-stellar results. I get polite smile and "Oh, it's the book that Tami really liked this year and is now forcing on all of us." :)
You must be ten years old and absolutely sincere when you run into the darkened bedroom at midnight shouting, "Mom, you have got to read this. It is the best book EVER!" Then cram it into sleepy parent's hand & scurry away.
Worked every time.
You know, I only have two people that I can really physically pass a book to and know that they will at least try to read it. My mom and stepdad are pretty good about it, but the problem is that we usually like different genres. I have learned to leave little post its for the knock your socks off passages.
Other than that, I am no help.
I'm lucky to be blessed with three sisters who love to read as much as I do. We pass books back and forth all the time and have had some great gab sessions about all the books we read. Honestly, they are the only "book club" that has ever really worked for me.
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