It’s a tossup between Hughart’s Bridge of Birds and Pratchett’s Colour of Magic
“A River Sutra”, by Gita Mehta, was recommended to me, by a friend and it became one of those books I reread from time to time. A wonderful read!
In fifth grade a schoolmate lent me her (probably parents’) copy of The Shining. Made me an SK lover for life. My most recent one is The Lovely Bones, sent to me by another childhood friend. Usually I’m the one giving the recommendations.
While the majority of books recommended to me by friends have been duds, a few have been worth it. The one that is the biggest in my mind: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. A bunch of the usual Computer Science geeks around me kept talking about it back in the early 80s, so I decided to read it. Yeah.
My best friend in high school recommended three of what turned out to be my favorite books to me: Ficciones, Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino, and The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov.
I in turn recommended to her The Man Who Was Thursday by Chesterton.
The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein. An ex-coworker and now friend gave me her copy of this book. A dog tells the story of his race car driver owners life. Good thing she didn’t try to tell me what it was about first because that sounds dumb. But what a lovely little book it turned out to be.
Mamma Zappa and Typo Knig introduced me to Bujold’s Vorkosigan* series. Great writing, and exactly what I needed at the time.
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*Spell checker wants to change “Vorkosigan” to “Kervorkian.” Just thought I’d share.
I’ll also say Lonesome Dove. I’d never read a “western” novel until then. My friend’s father, a voracious reader, recommended it. Its still one of my favorite reads.
When I was 12, my cousin Rich recommended The Hobbit and LotR to me, setting me on a lifelong path of reading fantasy (and playing D&D).
More recently, three of my favorite recent reads – The Deed of Paksenarrion, by Elizabeth Moon, Shades of Grey, by Jasper Fforde, and Guards! Guards!, by Terry Pratchett, were recommended to me by my friend Suzanne.
I haven’t gotten many book recommendations IRL; that’s what keeps me hanging around here! But long ago, my uncle did recommend Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy. It wasn’t half-bad and led to me reading other things by Mr. Conroy that were even better.
Sentenced to Prism by Alan Dean Foster . Friend of mine suggested it while in a used bookstore. I paid no more than a dollar for a copy in excellent condition.
Runner up goes to Life Probe by Michael McCollum. My father handed me the book and told me that this is one I’m going to like.
Honorable mention goes to Upwardly Mobile by Norman Tebbit which was suggested to me by the guy who used to clean the pool at my family’s house. It is a very good political biography even if you don’t agree with his politics. I was at home on spring break, laying out by the pool reading the Financial Times. The pool cleaner was originally from the UK and we got to talking about UK politics.
Two of my half-dozen lifetime favorite books were recommendations.
Personally: in 1978 a psychologist friend told me to read Deliverance. She said she couldn’t have cared less for the story itself, but Dickey’s writing as poet-turned-novelist was breathtaking, virtuosic painting with words. I just read it last year for the 5th or 6th time, and thanked her again for steering me to it.
Impersonally: several years ago someone on these here SDMB’s recommended To Say Nothing Of The Dog. Next time I read it will be the 4th time.
Not exactly a recommendation, but my mom asked me if I had read any Judith A. Jance because I share a name with one of the main characters. Not high-minded literature, but a couple of her series are a lot of fun. And I was able to get most of them through the state e-library, so thankfully I had to make few trips to the sad, local library.
“The Winds of War” and “War and Remembrance”, by Herman Wouk. Recommended by my mother, of all people. That was maybe 35 years ago, and I still remember how astounded I was at how good they were.
I remember, “The Caine Mutiny” being really good, as well (recommended by my father). I’m going to have to try, “Youngblood Hawke” some day.
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, recommended by a college professor. He (the professor, not OSC) taught a course on Myth, Fantasy & Science Fiction, but oddly that book was not amongst the curriculum.
It remains the only book I had to temporarily put down after the first chapter because it was too GOOD.
In late 1984 or early 1985, I was acquainted with an older woman …. with a woman who was about eight or nine years older than I was, who was very competent and hard working – which dispelled the idea that she was running the department because she was quite beautiful. I would always try to talk about “important” books to her when our lunch breaks coincided—it was natural and involuntary for me to want to impress her and I tried to impress her every chance I got. One time she asked me to give her a ride home after work. When we got to her house, she told me to keep the motor running and hopped out and ran into the house. Shortly after she came out with something and jumped back into the car. We went to a café and had a slice of pie while she told me that she wanted me to have this book. She explained that I had recommended all these books to her in the past, but this pulp fiction looking paperback had influenced her greatly. She tried to avoid telling me why it affected her because she wanted to see if it had a similar effect on me. The book was LUCIFER’S HAMMER, and I am reading through it again for maybe the twentieth time with my teenage boy. It turns out the notion of perceived value vs. intrinsic value was as important to me as it was to her. (Although I was not able to phrase it that well until after I spoke with her about it.)
A decade or so later, I was working for a company that had just gone through a giant shake-up. They hired this woman and set her up in the cross between a cubical and an office that was adjacent to mine. On her first day, they didn’t even bother to have one of the partners (or at least a very senior manager) take her to lunch, so I offered to take her to lunch. Within a few days, they hired a new guy who had a skill different than any of us other worker bees, but really complimented the business and awarded the principals plenty of money and opportunity. The three of us ate lunch together almost every day, unless one of them had a business lunch they had to attend. I was very fortunate, as they were both much higher on the food chain than I was and really didn’t need to bother with a junior person like myself. Of the three of us, I was the only native born American, and I really appreciated their friendships, I learned quite a bit from them as they both came from older and richer cultures. Often the woman would recommend I read the book her daughter was reading (or had recently finished). Finally she went and bought me my own copy of the book, and warned me it wasn’t an American block buster and I must “get over a hump” which will be boring for me—and then the book will really start. My first two efforts never overcame the hump. Then after a month or so she seemed really sad that she could not discuss the ‘good’ part of the book with me because I had never read it. After that I sat down and started back at the beginning and read through it again. This time I sailed right past the exposition and got to the actual story. Changed my life is all it ever did; that book is SOPHIE’S WORLD.
Speaking of book recommendations, in 2006 when SPECIAL TOPICS IN CALAMETY PHYSICS came out, NPR had the author (Marisha Pessl) and raving reviews of the book on constantly for two or three weeks. I read the book and became caught up in the praise for it. At that time I was a recently divorced, middle aged man who was strongly influenced by Pessl, and Jostein Gaarder, the author of SOPHIE’S WORLD. If anyone expressed any interest in novels or literature, I would instantly recommend these two books. One time as the person was asking me about each book- I realized they were both about underage girls becoming more worldly and growing up. Once I realized it, I would always recommend the books, and then say they are both about 15 year old girls coming to the age of maturity. Often someone in the conversation knew one book or the other and knew they were not about sex at all, but sometimes folks would just assume I was a sicko who was fascinated by little girls. I would try to write down the titles and authors for (well, everyone, but especially) those folks. If they bothered to investigate the recommendation—they could add two pretty good and deep books to their experience. If they chose to be judgmental and dismissive—they got to remain ignorant and judgmental.
I want to be clear that I was always neutral and never leering when I made the easy to misinterpret statement, and that I was always eager to clarify and explain what I meant and how the young girls became more worldly. I was genuinely trying to recommend books I truly admired, and admired for how they helped me understand the human experience better – even as a grown man. But when I routinely encountered faux moralists whom were more than willing, whom were eager to find and judge sex in even the most innocent circumstances—I just couldn’t resist the temptation to feed them what they craved.
As has already been mentioned by others, I read The Lord of the Rings in sixth grade. My teacher that year read to us The Hobbit and then told us about LOTR. Best teacher I ever had, thank you Mr. Bradbury!!!
My MIL lent me An Inconvenient Elephant by Judy Reene Singer and I really enjoyed it. Our tastes don’t always match on books, so I was hesitant at first. I’m glad I read it.