Shine the Light

When I was in college, I used to go to a bookstore near my apartment that I loved. All over the store, small little cards would stick out of certain books with little comments from the people who worked there, "Try this out!" or "A great summer read!" and it would be labeled with the name of the employee who provided the suggestion. They were, after all, suggestions, perhaps more than reviews. One of the guys who worked there, Ryan, and I seemed to have the same taste in books. He introduced me to books like The Shipping News and The Golden Compass. One thing I loved about Ryan was that he would never say anything bad about a book. If someone came in and asked "Did you read this? Did you like it?" holding up a copy of something, he would say something like "You know, I didn't connect to that one mostly because I'm not a crime thriller guy," and then direct them towards Sarah, the crime thriller girl who worked on weekends. When I asked him about it one time, he said, "I think my job as a bookseller is to just shine the light, you know?" Amen, Ryan.

Recently, someone on Goodreads wrote to ask me why all my books have four or five star reviews. "Yeesh," she asked, "Do you like everything you read?" Simple answer. No. I don't like everything I read. But I feel like this site, for me, is about suggestions. It's about sticking that little piece of paper with my name in it above a book to say, "I liked this one - check it out" so that maybe people can start to say "Oh hey, she likes Richard Russo as much as I do, I wonder what else she's reading?"

This world is a busy, messy place. I get that, I do. It's full of snark. People get kudos for being mean disguised as honesty or straight shooting. That's become very popular. On TV. Online. People get attention for it. And that's their choice. I believe very much in presenting myself in a certain way online. Again, my choice. But as far as suggestions for books - I prefer to shine the light.