# How well did SDMB Recommend books for you? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 6, 2005, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-did-sdmb-recommend-books-for-you/298062 "2005-04-06T17:31:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![NoPretentiousCodename](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/82dd89/32.png) [@NoPretentiousCodename](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NoPretentiousCodename)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2005, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-did-sdmb-recommend-books-for-you/298062/1 "2005-04-06T17:31:14Z")
Every so often we have a “Recommend me a book” thread here in the ol’ Cafe. How did those books turn out for you? Which recommended books were enjoyable and which were pretty meh? I read Evolution, by Stephen Baxter because of SDMB recommendation. Not the greatest book ever, but rather enjoyable. I re-recommend it to people on the SDMB who haven’t read it. I read Phases of Gravity by Dan Simmons as well. I found it enjoyable but not interesting, if you can imagine such a thing. Let’s hear how your reading has been improved (or otherwise) by Doper suggestions. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2005, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-did-sdmb-recommend-books-for-you/298062/2 "2005-04-06T17:46:29Z")
Someone recommended Kim Stanley Robinson’s **Years of Rice and Salt** , which I loved and have been recommending elsewhere. Probably a quarter of my Amazon wishlist – and a dozen books I’ve already bought, but not yet read – have been based on Doper recommendations. ---
**Author:** ![Keweenaw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Keweenaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keweenaw)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2005, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-did-sdmb-recommend-books-for-you/298062/3 "2005-04-06T17:49:17Z")
I read [The Briar King](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0345440706/qid=1112809566/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/104-9594469-6003935?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) and [Cryptonomicon](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060512806/qid=1112809620/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/104-9594469-6003935) based on [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=262269) I enjoyed both, quite a lot. Although I won’t pickup another Neal Stephenson book unless I have a lot of free time, that one took awhile to finish. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2005, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-did-sdmb-recommend-books-for-you/298062/4 "2005-04-06T17:52:57Z")
I usually pick up four or five suggestions out of a thread, of which I will find three or four to be good reading. I’m more likely to take a suggestion if the person puts some time into telling what the book is about. Also, when I go to find the book, I search by author name rather than by title, in case the person has written some other books in the same genre that I would also enjoy. It must be working, because I have a shitload of books in the to-read pile. ---
**Author:** ![Kaspar\_Hauser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b3f665/32.png) [@Kaspar\_Hauser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaspar_Hauser)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2005, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-did-sdmb-recommend-books-for-you/298062/5 "2005-04-06T17:54:36Z")
Just some of what I can remember that I liked: _Lucifer’s Hammer_ and \*Footfall \*by Niven and Pournelle, the Gordianus series by Steven Saylor, the Marcus Didius Falco series by Lindsay Davis, and \*Darwin’s Radio \*and the \*Forge of God \*by Greg Bear. Robert Charles Wilson has become one of my favorite authors, and I read him based soley on recommendations here. I was underwhelmed by \*The Doomsday Book \*by Connie Willis and \*Hominids \*by Robert Sawyer. Biggest dispappointment: everybody here seemed to think _Ender’s Game_ was the greatest thing since sliced bread; I thought it sucked. ---
**Author:** ![Selkie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@Selkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Selkie)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2005, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-did-sdmb-recommend-books-for-you/298062/6 "2005-04-06T18:14:47Z")
The suggestions on my “Recommend romance novels for someone who doesn’t like the genre” did a lot to rehabilitate my opinion of the genre, although it hasn’t exactly turned me into a romance reader either. (In case anyone’s wondering, it was author [Jennifer Crusie](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/102-2344481-6292947) who turned the tide). ---
**Author:** ![NoPretentiousCodename](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/82dd89/32.png) [@NoPretentiousCodename](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NoPretentiousCodename)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2005, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-did-sdmb-recommend-books-for-you/298062/7 "2005-04-06T18:30:43Z")
Oh, yeah. Footfall was another Dope-Book. I enjoyed it quite a bit. I too have a stack of books, some of which are Doper-Approved. Seems like for every one I read, the stack grows by three. 🙂 Enders game was a great, great story. When I was TWELVE! I still could enjoy reading it, but I could never have enjoyed it quite as much if I had read it for the first time today. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2005, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-did-sdmb-recommend-books-for-you/298062/8 "2005-04-06T19:29:11Z")
I think I heard about **Skeletons on the Zahara** from a Doper. Also **The English Passengers** (which I haven’t read yet, but I have heard praise from non-Dopers too, so I’m encouraged). I first learned about **Boris Akunin** here and have been pleased with his books. I love the recommendation threads. Mostly I look for recs of books I’ve already read and enjoyed, to see what else those Dopers are recommending. Conversely, if someone raves about authors I don’t like (the Left Behind books, Dean Koontz, Patricia Cornwell), I know to stay away from those recs. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2005, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-did-sdmb-recommend-books-for-you/298062/9 "2005-04-06T19:31:40Z")
> [@Keweenaw](#): > > I read [The Briar King](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0345440706/qid=1112809566/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/104-9594469-6003935?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) Yay. I’m glad that a book that I am prone to pushing on unsuspecting persons worked out.