Quote:
Originally Posted by ficbot
My sister and I are both gadget freaks and record-keepers. In celebration of her new iPod Touch, I sent her a list of the books I have bought from Fictionwise, telling her that if she wanted me to gift her one, (FW makes this very easy) I would. She in turn sent me a list of her books. And the result?
Sister thinks I buy far too much sci-fi (I feel I am more a mystery fan, but the recent binge on sale-priced Star Trek books has perhaps skewed the results) and is not sure how much of my 'reading material' she would care for. Out of the 200+ books on my list, there were perhaps half a dozen which interested her.
I of course was deeply offended by her diss of my reading habits. She seems to favour the hard-core weirdo romance genre and there was one book on her list (which was part of a series!) whose plot involved a woman going to a resort designed for hooking people up who want to have casual sex with vampires, werewolves and the like. So I really don't feel that someone like her is in the position to be lecturing me on literary taste :P Also, she buys too many short stories so I feel like her list would not have enough to keep me properly occupied.
So, out of the almost 500 books we have bought between us, maybe a dozen seem to be of mutual interest. Sharing is such a big threat? Not in my family!
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I don't know if you listen to CBC's Cross Country Checkup but last weekend they had their annual Christmas book call in show.
http://www.cbc.ca/checkup/archive/2009/intro091213.html
I like listening to this for the very reason you've mentioned. I know that my family and friends have very different tastes in books. Most of the books that are mentioned are subjects that I have no interest in and I would never pickup in a bookstore but when I hear people passionately describing them it reminds me of someone I know who does have a similar interest. I occasionally find a book for myself but more often a gift for others.
They have MP3's up of the show (Dec 13th 2009)
http://www.cbc.ca/checkup/archives.html
I agree that sharing isn't as big of a problem as the publishers think. I think that it's actually in their best interest. When I share a book with someone it's because I think they'll enjoy it but know they wouldn't buy it on their own.