Recommending Books 1 May, 2023 – Posted in: Articles, Books – Tags: Opinion, Recommendation

Recommending books to acquaintances, friends, and family can be tricky business. It can be even trickier if you primarily read genre fiction like science fiction, fantasy, and horror. It’s happened to all readers, someone you know (or don’t know) asks you for a recommendation on something to read. This is a question that can put a chill in the hearts of genre fiction fans everywhere.

If you know the person in question you can offer something that they might generally like. If you don’t know the person well then offering a recommendation is more difficult. Especially for the genre reader. I like to ask a few questions about what the enquirer generally likes to read. With a little information, it becomes much easier to offer suggestions on reading material.

Regardless of what a person generally reads, I like to recommend things that might fall outside their normal scope of reading. For instance. If a person is an avid mystery reader, then I might suggest some mysteries that straddle both the mystery and science fiction genres. This is an easy one since many authors have written mysteries set in science fiction universes.

If a person likes history or historical fiction, I would recommend certain fantasy novels that veer close to historical books. Also, alternate history novels where an author has taken a historical event and changed it to have a different outcome and then follow the line of reasoning that creates. These types of books are also easy to recommend.

Not every recommendation will meet a reader’s interest. Mostly, though, when asked for a recommendation I offer it without any expectation that it will be a good one. Once in a while, though, it brings you a new friend in the process. Books are great at bringing people together to share a common source of interest and enjoyment.

At Ab Astra Books we are always ready to recommend a book. If you need some help just contact us with your query and we’ll do our best to help. We are fans ready to help other fans (or the genre-curious).

If you have books that you like to recommend, let us know about those in the comments.