# What's your favorite book you read because someone you know personally recommended it? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 18, 2018, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-book-you-read-because-someone-you-know-personally-recommended-it/812656 "2018-04-18T18:56:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2018, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-book-you-read-because-someone-you-know-personally-recommended-it/812656/1 "2018-04-18T18:56:45Z")
For me, it was _Watership Down_, by Richard Adams. My sister recommended it. ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2018, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-book-you-read-because-someone-you-know-personally-recommended-it/812656/2 "2018-04-18T19:19:38Z")
I’m pretty standoffish about reading recommendations, which means people mostly don’t try to give them to me. I find my favorite books by pure happenstance, thank you very much. Except that \*\*ivylass \*\*told me to read Outlander, and damn. Good book. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2018, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-book-you-read-because-someone-you-know-personally-recommended-it/812656/3 "2018-04-18T20:23:19Z")
In junior high school, a friend gave me Robert Heinlein’s _Glory Road_ for a birthday present. Introduced me to one of my favorite authors. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2018, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-book-you-read-because-someone-you-know-personally-recommended-it/812656/4 "2018-04-18T20:25:06Z")
**Lonesome Dove** , recommended by my sister. ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2018, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-book-you-read-because-someone-you-know-personally-recommended-it/812656/5 "2018-04-18T20:32:06Z")
My then-boyfriend, now-husband recommended _Lord of the Rings_ to me. I was about twenty then and I promptly read the whole thing cover-to-cover, as I have continued to do about once every five years since then. The Aubrey-Maturin series was recommended to me by a guy at work. I love the series to death, but I grew to hate the guy who recommended it. I pretend to him that it didn’t do anything for me, so he won’t try to talk to me about it. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2018, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-book-you-read-because-someone-you-know-personally-recommended-it/812656/6 "2018-04-18T20:39:32Z")
A fifth-grade classmate told me about _The Hobbit_ and _Lord of the Rings_. Thanks, Caroline! More recently, a colleague gave me the first book in Ben Aaronovitch’s _Rivers of London_ series. Have not kept up with them since the first few, as they segued into a quasi-separate graphic-novel series, but they’re very interesting books. I should maybe get back into _Rivers of London_ as I patiently wait for the next installments of Robert Galbraith’s Cormoran Strike and John Sandford’s Virgil Flowers series. Sigh. “Just a minute, Mr. Postman…” ---
**Author:** ![swampspruce](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/swampspruce/32/261_2.png) [@swampspruce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampspruce)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2018, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-book-you-read-because-someone-you-know-personally-recommended-it/812656/7 "2018-04-18T21:00:45Z")
Callahan’s Cross Time Saloon series by Spider Robinson and Myth Inc.series by Robert Aspirin courtesy of my best female friend in high school. I inhaled these books, in a good way! ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2018, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-book-you-read-because-someone-you-know-personally-recommended-it/812656/8 "2018-04-18T21:15:40Z")
> [@Dendarii\_Dame](#): > > For me, it was _Watership Down_, by Richard Adams. My sister recommended it. I can’t remember who actually recommended this to me or if I got it in a “books to read before you die” list. In the off-chance it was from a person, it’s this. If I didn’t get that recommendation from a person, then it’s a book I read just last month. A YA series called “Six of Crows.” I read it for Book Club and I was hooked on it like I never thought I would be. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2018, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-book-you-read-because-someone-you-know-personally-recommended-it/812656/9 "2018-04-18T21:21:13Z")
> [@swampspruce](#): > > Callahan’s Cross Time Saloon series by Spider Robinson and Myth Inc.series by Robert Aspirin courtesy of my best female friend in high school. I inhaled these books, in a good way! My girlfriend recommended these books to me - and I married her! ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2018, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-book-you-read-because-someone-you-know-personally-recommended-it/812656/10 "2018-04-18T21:25:44Z")
Had an English class in high school where we just read books, wrote a report on them, met with the teacher individually for a conference and did a project on one (I made a nuclear power plant from a pantyhose egg with a light inside to simulate a meltdown). Stephen King’s **salem’s Lot** went through our class like wildfire–_everybody_ recommended it to everybody else. ---
**Author:** ![Cayuga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Cayuga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cayuga)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2018, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-book-you-read-because-someone-you-know-personally-recommended-it/812656/11 "2018-04-18T21:32:04Z")
_Time And Again_ by Jack Finney, many years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Paintcharge](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/paintcharge/32/7946_2.png) [@Paintcharge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paintcharge)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2018, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-book-you-read-because-someone-you-know-personally-recommended-it/812656/12 "2018-04-18T21:35:39Z")
My mom gave me [“The Cliff Walk”](https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-316-80308-3) by Don Snyder when I was in a rough place in life. It really helped me through. A friend recommended “the Monkey Wrench Gamg” which led me to the rest of Ed Abbey’s books. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2018, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-book-you-read-because-someone-you-know-personally-recommended-it/812656/13 "2018-04-18T21:35:54Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > My girlfriend recommended these books to me - and I married her! And in answer to the OP’s actual question, a co-worker recommended Shards of Honor (by Lois McMaster Bujold) to me in 1994 - and Bujold is still a favorite. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2018, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-book-you-read-because-someone-you-know-personally-recommended-it/812656/14 "2018-04-18T22:15:01Z")
A girlfriend (at the time) recommended _A Confederacy of Dunces_. She had a sick, twisted world-view which I very much enjoyed, so I figured I’d enjoy the book, too. I did. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2018, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-book-you-read-because-someone-you-know-personally-recommended-it/812656/15 "2018-04-18T23:15:12Z")
In college a friend recommended the writings of Jorge Luis Borges to me, saying that I was probably strange enough to understand them. It’s been a lifelong pleasure. ---
**Author:** ![not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_what_you_d_expect/32/3246_2.png) [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_what_you_d_expect)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2018, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-book-you-read-because-someone-you-know-personally-recommended-it/812656/16 "2018-04-18T23:43:11Z")
My friend Donna suggested _Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry_. My first attempt to read the book didn’t take, but a year or so later I tried again and just loved it. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2018, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-book-you-read-because-someone-you-know-personally-recommended-it/812656/17 "2018-04-19T00:39:17Z")
**The Stupidest Angel** by Christopher Moore. I’d never read Moore before, so this was my introduction to him. I found something I had to read aloud to my wife on every other page. Now we’ve both read every Moore book published\*, and I’ve read the stuff on his internet site. \*except **Noir** , which was just released yesterday. But we’ll get it soon and devour it. ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2018, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-book-you-read-because-someone-you-know-personally-recommended-it/812656/18 "2018-04-19T01:39:28Z")
My wife and my son both recommended that I read Marilynne Robinson’s novel Gilead. Well, they were right. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2018, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-book-you-read-because-someone-you-know-personally-recommended-it/812656/19 "2018-04-19T01:46:03Z")
I was about to graduate high school, and my college major was about to be Architecture. A friend recommended _The Fountainhead,_ saying my views on architecture were compatible with those in the book. She was right. ---
**Author:** ![saucywench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85e7bf/32.png) [@saucywench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saucywench)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2018, 9:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-book-you-read-because-someone-you-know-personally-recommended-it/812656/20 "2018-04-19T09:03:09Z")
_The Once and Future King_ [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-book-you-read-because-someone-you-know-personally-recommended-it/812656.md?page=2)