Gateway books

There has been a lot of talk in the Twitterverse lately
about gateway books. These are the books, or book, that you read that makes you
a fan of a genre.

Harry Potter is a gateway book. Many fantasy fans grew up
reading Harry Potter and progressed to reading other fantasy. If we include
film and television, Star Wars and Star Trek can be considered gateway stories
as well.

Many people—particularly older people—will recommend the
classics. “You’ve got to read Lord of the Rings.” (I read it in
secondary school, and enjoyed it, but I have never read it since.) Or, “Robert
Heinlen is the grand master of science fiction. You must read him. Stranger
in a Strange Land.” (Never give someone a sixty-year-old book as a gateway
book. Few last the tyranny of time.)

Not only that, different people have different gateway
books. You can’t—and shouldn’t—recommend the same books to everyone.

Being a science fiction writer, people often ask me for
recommendations. They also, sometimes, ask whether they would enjoy our books. My
answers are the same for both the recommendations, and the should-I’s. I have a
little mini-quiz I ask.

What do you read?What television shows do you watch?What movies do you like?Not everyone reads books, but if they do, I ask
about some of their favourite books.

After that, I’ll recommend some books if I can come up with
any I think they’ll like.

I try to make them:

Published within the last twenty years, the last
ten, if I canStrongly character-based.

For most people, but not all, I also try for lighter stories
rather than serious ones.  Few people are
ready for heavy tomes as entrees into a genre. That often comes later, when
they start to enjoy the genre.

Likewise, the classics come later, too. Sometimes they even
come after someone has watched a television series. That’s what I did with
Pride and Prejudice. Couldn’t get into it until I watched the BBC version (I’m
sure I don’t need to say which one, it’s the classic). After which I finally
read the book right through.