Soul Queen
07-21-2010, 03:51 PM
http://www.salon.com/books/laura_miller/2010/07/21/recommendations/index.html
brief thoughtful article about recommending books.
"You can't recommend books to strangers without asking personal questions," Stein told me. As he pointed out, what we want to read is often pegged to transitory moods. The same book may not thrill the same person at every point in his or her life. "I don't think people read 'for' pleasure, exactly," he went on. "Of course there is pleasure in reading. But mainly we do it out of need. Because we're lonely, or confused, or need to laugh, or want some kind of protection or quiet — or disturbance, or truth, or whatever." The recommender must take this into account.
brief thoughtful article about recommending books.
"You can't recommend books to strangers without asking personal questions," Stein told me. As he pointed out, what we want to read is often pegged to transitory moods. The same book may not thrill the same person at every point in his or her life. "I don't think people read 'for' pleasure, exactly," he went on. "Of course there is pleasure in reading. But mainly we do it out of need. Because we're lonely, or confused, or need to laugh, or want some kind of protection or quiet — or disturbance, or truth, or whatever." The recommender must take this into account.