Has anyone ever experimented with letting someone else choose your next read? My daughter and I have been reading together lately and started competitions like shouting “chapter” after completing any. On a whim, we decided it would be fun to let each other choose our next book.
Then we both had second thoughts worrying about a prisoner’s dilemma version: we give a loved book over, and they counter with a monster book or something we know the other won’t like.
We came up with rules (see below), and I’d love to see what conditions you’ve agreed to if you’re doing anything like this. How well do you trust the person you are swapping choices not to aim you at a giant book outside your preferences?
Our Rules:
1. We each make a list of books the other has to choose from (We wimped out on the prisoner’s dilemma as either of us may choose to do that).
2. The suggester has to have read the book.
3. We have to have physical copies of the book.
4. If either of us DNF, they must select from the original suggested list.
I’ll put our book lists in a comment in case anyone wants to see how we did.
by RegionalBias
5 Comments
Swapping books with my teen daughter:
Her List for Me:
**Fourth Wing, by Rebecca Yarros**
**The Inheritance Games, by Jennifer Lynn Barnes**
**#MurderTrending, by Gretchen McNeil**
** Bullet Train, by Koraro Isaka**
My List for her:
**Good Omens, by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman**
**The Martian, by Andy Weir**
**Crackpot Palace, by Jeffery Ford**
**The City & The City, by China Miéville**
So, we both ended up choosing books we think the other would like. No giant SJM list from her or history books from me.
i have a reading friend that reads almost only romance and i do not read romance. we have a deal that if either of us has a book we want the other to read we have to read a book they recommend.
we’ve done maybe a dozen swaps, and it has mostly been good. the key is to pick a book you think they will like and not choose one you personally like.
really great way to discover new reads/genres.
Can you explain the prisoner’s dilemma version? I’m not really understanding what makes it one.
I have a discord server with a few friends and one of them does something like this with comic books. When he’s ready to read a new one, he posts a picture of a few comics and one of us will choose for him. It’s fun.
I recently thought it would be cool to do that with my next few library reads. So I haven’t done it yet, but it’s planned!
Not exactly a swap/recommendation situation, but it’s still fun to let someone choose for you from a list of books, especially when you have choice paralysis (which happens to me very often with books).
Well, I did once. It was funny. I usually buy books from the airport before the flight. My *then boyfriend* suggested he pick one for me, which I found exciting. But it was such a horrible book that I never ever played this game again, lol.