The Perils of Gifting and Recommending Books

I love receiving books as gifts and I often gift books as gifts.  Of course, choosing a book to give someone else can be a difficult task.  Back in April, Laura Marie wrote an article “The Right (and Wrong!) Way to Give Books as Gifts” for BookRiot.  She suggested four questions to ask oneself before picking a book to gift: 

Will this book make the person feel understood, not judged?   

Does this book fill a need that the receiver has expressed?

Do I personally cherish this book?

Does the person realistically have time for another book?

See the entire piece at http://bookriot.com/2017/04/18/the-right-and-wrong-way-to-give-books-as-gifts/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Riot%20Rundown&utm_term=BookRiot_TheRiotRundown_Tue-Thur. 

Maybe a bookstore gift card is better and the recipient has the fun of choosing a book?

Sometimes people don’t want to gift a book but want to recommend titles to others; this too can be fraught with peril.  Michelle Anne Schingler  wrote “25 Terrible Book Recommendations” for BookRiot:  http://bookriot.com/2017/07/17/twenty-five-terrible-book-recommendations/.  How about recommending  Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle as the prize for winning a hot dog eating contest?