And Now For Something Different!

Hi there!

As all eight of you know, this blog is where I try to talk you into reading the books I like. Now, in the new year, let’s do it the other way around at least once. You tell me what to read—and if I agree, I’ll tell everybody else. It’s a sort of a contest, except I’m not sure how many people will win—maybe everybody will.

Here’s the way it works. If there is a book you want more people to pay attention to, shoot me an email (or comment on this post). Include the full name of the book and the name of the author. If the book has more than one edition, be sure to indicate which edition you mean. Tell me why you think everyone should read the book—just a line or two is fine. If it looks interesting, I’ll read it. If I agree the book is awesome, I’ll post a recommendation on it. If I at least read the book, I’ll give it a tweet or two.

You’re allowed to suggest books you wrote, or books your friends wrote, though you can also just pitch something you read and liked. Any genre is ok, but I’ve got to warn you I like some genres better than others. The book does not have to be in print, but it does have to be publicly available. Old, out-of-print books are fine, as are self-published works you’re printing to order, but there must be some way for readers to find the book. If it’s sitting on your computer, it doesn’t count. The book also has to be either written, or translated into, English. If you pitch a translated book, be sure to let me know which translation you want me to read.

If we have an interesting conversation about the book, or if you have an interesting story to tell about it, I’ll post about that, too.

Basically, this is free advertising, either for your book or for the book you want to champion. I don’t have a lot of readers yet, but I do read a wide variety of books, and I talk to a wide variety of people. If everyone who talks me into reading a book tells their friends to check out my blog, then not only do more people here about my writing, but people find out about books they might not otherwise have heard of. So it’s a win all around.

We’ll see how it goes. I expect the whole contest to be kind of small. Next year I’ll do it again (if the world doesn’t end first, of course), and we’ll see how the whole thing grows.