Facebook Takes the Place of Word-of-Mouth Book Recommendations
In
the past we readers relied on information from book tours
or word of mouth in selecting some of our reading. That activity,
like many other, has been added to the social networks—especially
Facebook.
A few
months back, The
Shack, by William Paul Young was discussed
on Facebook and was read by several friends. Because of those
discussions, both my wife and I read the book and found it
to be a most enjoyable read.
The
latest book to hit our portion of Facebook is The
Book Thief
by Markus Zusak. One could go to Amazon and get a very
good review of the book, but how would one know to go there
without prior notice? Once there (at Amazon) one can listen
to Zusak explain how the book came to being—events that
were the crucial to writing of the book.
So how
did we get to the point of knowing or wanting to go read about
the book? Some word of mouth and then Facebook communication..
I
was at the Post Office where Rhonda Meade is post mistress,
and she told me that Mary Slone, a teacher in the local school
district, said I should read this book. It should be noted
that Miss Slone is an avid reader and her recommendations
are nearly always on the mark.
I came
home and started my segment of the conversation on Facebook
by asking who had read the book and what did they think about
it. I don't know that it happened this way, but I am betting
it did: Miss Slone recommended the book to the local superintendent
of school, who used to be Miss Slone's principal at South
Floyd High School, and he read it and from reports I got enjoyed
it very much.
Pam
Paige Caudill wrote, “it is unusual and haunting. History
always strikes me more deeply when I "see" what
is was like through someone's life.” Her cousin Karen
Paige Hall said, “I am pretty sure I have this on my
Kindle but was waiting for a very uneventful point in my life
to start reading it. I say uneventful because it seems like
it is going to be a tough read.” Janet Lawson, former
guidance counselor at South Floyd High said “I read
this book. It was awesome.” Steven E. Estep, who recently
finished his Ph.D said, “The
Book Thief is great! It's also a good companion
to McCarthy's The
Road and the film Life
Is Beautiful. You know, The
Hunger Games
is pretty great as well!
Nearly
all these people who responded are in the teaching field,
and it seems odd that all were so taken with the book when
Amazon targets young adults as the core readers. Ada Brown,
who lives in South Carolina, said a sixth grader read the
book, but the girl's teacher said she would not teach the
book to any class lower that tenth grade.
I now
have the book and plan to start reading it as soon as I get
my reviews and my column in for this month. I may get double
use from this or as we sometimes say kill two birds with one
stone by doing a column now and a review later on.
I can't
personally recommend the book, but I think you have read enough
from the people in this column to decide if this is a book
for you.
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