{"id":18312,"date":"2016-04-04T09:30:21","date_gmt":"2016-04-04T13:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=18312"},"modified":"2016-04-04T09:30:21","modified_gmt":"2016-04-04T13:30:21","slug":"when-friends-dont-like-your-favorite-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=18312","title":{"rendered":"When Friends Don’t Like Your Favorite Books"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have a new friend and we were having lunch Saturday. The conversation turned from her cheese-making venture (if you want delicious cheese try Fairy Tale Farms cheeses, they’re amazing) to favorite books. I often get this question and usually my mind goes blank almost immediately. But I did manage to pull a list together after I was flooded with favorite book covers. It’s always hard to talk to adults about favorite books because so many of mine of are young adult novels. I presented my list and Lisa’s face dropped with the mention of one title.
\nOne of my all-time favorite books is\u00a0The Book Thief<\/em>. I absolutely adore this book.\"bookthief\" From death as the narrator to the character of Papa who still warms my heart as one of the best parental figures in books. My friend’s face started falling as I waxed rhapsodic about the book. I asked what was wrong and she said, “I really don’t like that book.” This was the first time anyone has said that about this book. I asked why she didn’t like it. And she told me in very clear terms that she felt emotionally manipulated by it. I was surprised to hear that, but could see it. Lisa gave great examples and I was totally impressed and left wondering if I had been reading the book all wrong.
\nWe then had a rich conversation about what makes a great book. She suggested I read\u00a0City of Thieves<\/em> which I’ve ordered and will start reading when it comes in. Lisa said it was better than\u00a0The Book Thief,\u00a0<\/em>which honestly, I’m having a hard time believing. But, when someone whose opinion I respect suggests a book I will do my darnedest to read it.
\nThankfully, we did agree on picture books.\u00a0Toot and Puddle\u00a0<\/em> is one of my favorite books for so many reasons: best friend pigs, stunning art and a gentleness that is just lovely. Lisa was a fan of the story and art as well. I shared my favorite young adult novel, Wintergirls<\/em>, and while she hadn’t heard of it, she was intrigued to read it.
\nI left her farm after bottle-feeding two-day-old lambs and was scratching my head about her reaction to The<\/em> Book Thief.<\/em> This highlights the beauty of reading. It’s such a personal act with each reader having very individual reactions to books that it’s really fun to discuss. But when someone has such a visceral reaction to one of my favorites, I’m intrigued. I will happily read\u00a0her suggested book so we can discuss it next time we get together.
\nSo readers, how do you respond when someone really doesn’t like one of your favorite books?
\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Can you be friends with someone who doesn’t like a book you love?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18312\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}