I made a topic asking people to talk about their favorite books, telling people about 3 of mine. Most people replied telling me the title of the one favorite, and said nothing else.
What do I have to do to get you to tell me about a book that you're passionate about, on a forum that is all about discussing books?
https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/1rbw5r1/tell_me_about_what_you_consider_the_best/
by ExplodingPoptarts
5 Comments
A book club of some sort? Or a reread. Or a post that goes viral enough that people want to participate.
I just frequent subs of specific books or universes, like r/Overlord or r/Cosmere, to name a couple, if I want to talk about my favorite books.
You have to be specific on a platform like this. For example, “Share the name and author of three of your favorite books, as well as at least one thing you like about the book and one thing that’s stuck with you.”
Not as important, but also moving away from “tell me” to “tell us” (hence my use of *share* in the example) helps get people more willing to engage—many would prefer to feel they are part of a big discussion rather than just speaking to the OP.
People (including myself) tend to skim original posts, so you need to state things clearly and immediately.
These days you need a corkscrew to get anything out people past “how are you”.
Bringing up actual points about the novel, something you were thinking about, maybe a hypothetical or trying to analyze what a character’s motivation was.
If you just say ‘x book was good’, that’s not an open-ended sentence, really. People need an injection point to start sharing their thoughts.
Let’s say for instance, I wanted to talk to someone about the Great Gatsby. I’d ask you (if you knew the book), if Nick was jealous of Gatsby, or if Nick was in love with Gatsby. Maybe not romantically, but platonicly. Or hell, if Gatsby was ever even in love with Daisy at all, maybe he was just in love with the idea of Daisy, because that was what he thought a ‘modern noble’ would have his story be.
Gatsby was falsification after falsification, he may have gaslit himself into it.
Ok, here’s an oldie but goodie.
Watership Down.
I’m 40 and some change. I recently re-read this book, and I found it delightful. Normally, this kind of whimsical vibe isn’t what I’m into. But! It’s so well written, and the episodic nature of the book kept me flipping the pages.