Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme that was originally created and hosted by Rukky @ Eternity Books starting in August 2019, and was then cohosted with Dani @ Literary Lion from May 2020 to March 2022. Book Nook Bits has hosted since April 2022.
What a great idea for a topic, and one I’m very excited to dig into!
Let’s Talk Bookish November 29th:
Go-To Book Recommendations
Prompts: Do people often ask you for book recommendations? Do you have go-to responses? Do the books you recommend depend on the person asking, or are your answers always the same? What’s a book you would recommend to anyone?
It really depends – some people ask who aren’t big readers, but usually that’s something that comes up in conversation. If I’m talking to someone about books, we might swap recommendations. I don’t actually have go-to responses, as largely it’s so dependent on the person asking. I don’t want to suggest, for example, a creepy horror book to someone who only reads romances. But I think I’m good at linking books, so if someone says they enjoyed …, there’s usually a few other books I can suggest to them – if the book(s) they like is one I’ve read!
There are, however, a handful of books I do recommend if I can find almost any reason to do so! I’ll usually try to ‘scope out’ the person I’m talking to – if they mention a genre, I might mention a few of the more well known books in that genre to see if they’ve read them, and follow up with a book they’re more likely not to have read. Other times, it might be that we’ve briefly talked about what sort of book they’re looking for, and I might have a suggestion for them. I’ve recommended S.H. Cooper to multiple people, and the beauty of her work is that she has a really good variety, too, so I find a lot of times she has a book someone might enjoy.
For horror fans, as well as Cooper I tend to recommend Laurel Hightower – but which book totally depends on the sort of books they already like! And of course there are other indie horror books I’ll try and spread the word about. Sometimes, there’s a ‘popular’ book I maybe haven’t read, but have heard enough about to get a good idea of what else someone will like. Basically, if I’ve really enjoyed a book, I’ll likely encourage others to check it out, too, even a couple of years down the line. Some of my ‘go to’ for Fantasy are The Foxglove King, the Darker Shade of Magic series, and Folk of the Air – if they haven’t already read these but have mentioned (for example for Folk of the Air) enjoyed fae fantasy romances, or if they say their favourite thing about (insert popular fantasy here) is the fae aspect, or the centring of a strong female character, or the political intrigue aspect, then usually I have another book I can suggest they try.
Like many things in life, there’s more nuance here than simply yes or no – and there’s no one single book I’d recommend to any- and everyone, as there are as many different tastes in books as there are, well, tastes! I’d rather suggest something I have a strong inkling the other person might like, instead.
Unwrapping Words 