Recommending books you haven't read

[Peronel]

I suppose what I am saying is that our cup of familiarity may be larger than our cup of time and so of course we know "something" about a work without having read it, we just can't say "it was a good read".

I really feel like a cup of tea....

 

[RobertM]

Novella says:

"Clearly you're the new SFG."

I don't know that abbreviation...
The reason I told people to find the book on their own was that I couldn't remember the author's African name. Ishmael Beah
I got a good look at maybe ten pages and the covers on 'A Long Time Gone'. It's the true story of a 12-year old boy who was drafted into the Sierra Leone army. He's 28 now, and sometimes speaks in the U.S.
The book is shocking, stunning. Some of his companions were even younger, and they had to drag their AK-47's along in the dirt, since they were too small to carry them.
I saw right away the text flowed like honey. I already ordered it from Amazon.
Here: 'A Long Time Gone - The Memoirs of a Boy Soldier'

 

[Peronel]

Novella says:
I saw right away the text flowed like honey. I already ordered it from Amazon.
Here: 'A Long Time Gone - The Memoirs of a Boy Soldier'

A cup of tea and some honey toast...mmmmm

 

[TDFuhringer]

I would never even consider recommending a book I haven't read. I can't believe anyone would do such a thing. I've read many books that I thought would be good (or mediocre) and turned out to be quite the opposite. How can you know if you haven't read it?

 

[ollie_99]

It's obviously a practice that shouldn't be used and if people do this they should make it known they haven't read a book because then their advice can be ignored.

 

[helgi]

Over quite a long time I"ve noticed that this is a really common thing to do on this website.

How do you feel about recommending books you haven't read? Do you think it's okay? Do you ever feel guilty, like you might really be giving bad advice?

Doctors perscribe medicines that they themselves may not have taken.

 

[helgi]

It's obviously a practice that shouldn't be used and if people do this they should make it known they haven't read a book because then their advice can be ignored.

I was reading the memoirs of sherlock holmes too, but had to take it back to the library, and unable to pay the fine.
I read your signature. Did Winston Churchill really speak that way to a woman?

 

[ollie_99]

I was reading the memoirs of sherlock holmes too, but had to take it back to the library, and unable to pay the fine.
I read your signature. Did Winston Churchill really speak that way to a woman?

Yes he did lol!

 

[sparkchaser]

Exactly. How many of us only think we've fully read The Da Vinci Code?

I read it. All of it.

Did Winston Churchill really speak that way to a woman?

You have to know the full context of that quote.

Lady Nancy Astor: "Sir, you're drunk!"

Winston Churchill: "Yes, Madam, I am. But in the morning, I will be sober and you will still be ugly."


Lady Nancy Astor was the first female in Parliament and she and Churchill "enjoyed" a bitter rivalry. So the quote isn't too terribly surprising. They also share this other famous exchange:

Lady Astor: "If you were my husband, I'd put arsenic in your coffee."

Churchill: "Madam, if I were your husband, I'd drink it!"



(And CDA thought I wouldn't read that book!)

 

[ollie_99]

I read it. All of it.
Lady Astor: "If you were my husband, I'd put arsenic in your coffee."
Churchill: "Madam, if I were your husband, I'd drink it!"

Thats quote is classic!