Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge discussion

A book recommended by someone you just met ... this one is tricky. Several members have similar reading interests to mine. Does a virtual meeting count? ;-)

Not sure how we track these suggestions since we'll all encounter different people in our lives.

This one is tough since I don't meet a lot of new people, and book recommendations is not always at the top of the list for discussing with new acquaintances.

I think a virtual meeting totally counts!

I think virtual meetings count. I'm going to use a recommendation I got from a booktuber (a person that reviews books on YouTube) and go with the Unspoken series.

I started working at a new place a few weeks ago and one of my coworkers recommended Mud Vein by Tarryn Fisher.

Could we recommend each other books on here?

Emma wrote: "Could we recommend each other books on here?"
That's my hope, too!

Hello all, it's nice to meet you. I recommend Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life by Rosenthal. :-)

Mindy

I think I'm going to wait until I get all the low -hanging fruit first and then I'm going to ask the last person I "friended".

When I go to the library, I plan to look around for someone borrowing a few books and then introduce myself to him/her and say that I'm participating in a reading challenge and ask for a recommendation. People who borrow books from the library tend to be nice people, right?

Or misanthropic loners who prefer the company of books to people :P

I have a friend who used to work at Powell's in Portland and the staff there loved giving book recommendations! I've found that that's generally the case at independent bookstores. If you have one near you, they also tend to have an employee recommendation self, you can use that to find the employee you think has the most similar taste to you. :)

Do the 'our customers/employees recommend this' card in the bookstore count?
But for real, I'm just going to ask an employee in a bookstore for a recommendation. My local independent store has a lot of staff who are always willing to talk about books, and I'm sure they wouldn't mind!

Marie wrote: "Do the 'our customers/employees recommend this' card in the bookstore count? "

Absolutely IMHO.

Belinda wrote: "I started working at a new place a few weeks ago and one of my coworkers recommended Mud Vein by Tarryn Fisher."

I think we can!!

I just read The fault in our stars and it was very good! A little hard to get into it at first but, over all a great book! If anyone wants to use that as a recommendation! :)

While waiting in the boarding area of the airport, I was sitting next to someone who was discussing books with her friend. I noticed she was also reading a book, so I asked for a recommendation. Will start reading her recommendation tonight.

What did she recommend? I love random stranger book chats :)

Diane wrote: "While waiting in the boarding area of the airport, I was sitting next to someone who was discussing books with her friend. I noticed she was also reading a book, so I asked for a recommendation. Wi..."

What did she recommend?

I'm planning on either asking around on the groups that I am part of, or specifically asking for a GoodReads recommendation from other uses.

The only people I'm likely to meet during this year are new college placement students at my workplace, and they tend not to be huge readers in my experience. I definitely think online meetings count.

I recommend The Iron Trial

I would like to recommend Room or Station Eleven. Those were my two favorites I read last year.

I recommend the orphan train and dad is fat, two of my faves this year!

Books that I have recommended to people....The Night Circus; The Magician's Lie; The Sugar Queen; Champion. There are probably lots more, but those I have recommended to multiple people :)

Eleanor wrote: "Books that I have recommended to people....The Night Circus; The Magician's Lie; The Sugar Queen; Champion. There are probably lots mor..."

Thank you! I wanted to read the Night Circus! Now I can haha :)

Watermelon by Marian Keyes

I just realized I have a book for this task. In a different goodreads group, one of the challenges was to have a shelf with 50+ book choices and then a different member would select 3 books from that shelf for you to read.

I did it! Went to Barnes&Noble, found a worker (hello Tristen), introduced myself, explained the challenge and asked for a recommendation. He started with Troublemaker by Leah Remini, but I'm using that for book written by a celebrity and should get it from the library this week. So, he went to a YA stand alone book called Conversion by Katherine Howe. I am SO excited for this one. It sounds great.

I may also broaden the definition of "just" met to include anyone met within the last year or so.

Eleanor wrote: "Books that I have recommended to people....The Night Circus; The Magician's Lie; The Sugar Queen; Champion. There are probably lots mor..."

Thank You... Eleanor..... I'm reading Legend By Marie Lu for romance set in future category... So, by your recommendation I'll read Champion too :)

I'm going with a loose interpretation of this one too. I met someone a few years ago, and at the time she recommended Kate Morton's The Forgotten Garden. I haven't read it yet. So because I got the recommendation when we firs met, I'm going with it!

Yay! I finally asked my new co-worker and she recommended A Discovery of Witches, of the All Souls trilogy.

I've heard good things about this so I'm excited to read it.

I don't know what I'm going to do for this prompt, I'm leaving it open right now ... I think I will either (a) pick one of the really interesting books recommended in this very discussion thread, (b) walk up to a librarian and ask for a recommendation, or (c) maybe I will actually meet someone this year who recommends a book!

A Discovery of Witches looks good, so I might read that!

Blindness by José Saramago - recommended by the father of a cub scout from our pack

Hi, my name is Kristy-lynn. I recommend all the Cormoran Strike books, Cuckoo's Calling, The Silkworm and Career of Evil.

Does a brand new book blog count? The blogger highly recommended Appealed by Emma Chase. I was going to read it anyway, so maybe it is cheating...

I was recommended a book by a person I had met in the bookstore about 5 minutes before she recommended the book. This happened a year ago, but I'm counting it because of the time frame of knowing her and the recommendation. I haven't read the book yet, because it didn't hold my attention in the first couple of chapters. Maybe if I force myself, it will get better. It is Double Blind, has anybody read it? Is it any good?

This was kind of awkward for me, as I had to introduce myself to the help desk guy at Barnes and Noble and ask him to recommend a book to me. I think he must have thought I was a little strange.

Finally after he recommended a couple books, I bought

I am leaving this prompt until the bitter end!!! I keep hoping I'll spontaneously meet someone who will recommend a book to me ... but so far no luck. I guess I'll use my fall-back plan and March up to a librarian I don't know and ask him/her. Or I can move to Plan C and ask someone here!! So I probably won't get this done in May for the monthly group read.

I've decided to ask the person who I most recently "friended" through Goodreads for this one.

Kirsten *Dogs Welcome - People Tolerated" wrote: "I've decided to ask the person who I most recently "friended" through Goodreads for this one."

This is another great idea.

This is going to be tough. I don't just randomly ask strange people to recommend a book, so I've thought of a compromise. I recently signed up for a 6-month membership to Brilliant Books. I am waiting on them to send me my first book to read. No, I haven't met the people at this book store, but they are recommending a book by sending one to me based upon my preferences. Otherwise, I would just end up skipping this month's prompt. Also, you might use recommendations posted on here. Again, you haven't face-to-face met these people, but I've found some good suggestions already for other categories. Asking your local librarian would be good too. They'd probably love the opportunity to share their favorites.

I'm defining "just met" fairly broadly for this one, and choosing a book recommended by someone that I met this year. This person was a field placement student at the agency where I work, and she highly recommended Me Before You, a book that I already really wanted to read. This is one of the books that I was most excited to start, so I hope it lives up to it.

I don't get out much, so that's why I decided to ask the last person who "friended" me here on Goodreads. You could also ask the latest person who friended you on Facebook or Twitter. It really isn't that hard. I mean, you could ask one of the library helpers you haven't met yet. Or go in a bookstore new to you. There's no reason to make it more difficult than it is.

I would love to get a recommendation from someone doing this challenge. Anyone have a book that is their absolute favorite and would recommend to me? I'm hoping to find a really good book that I haven't read before. Bring on the suggestions! Thanks!!

Two of my favorites that I recommend are Station Eleven and Daughter of Smoke and Bone.

Just got my recommendation from a librarian. Fallen Angels

Last year, I was standing in a VERY long line for a showcase and I started talking to people around me. We started talking books, and The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing was recommended by someone I literally just met. Unfortunately for me, I read that book last year, and I loved it. So, I am posting it here now, as a recommendation for you :)

This sounds like it would be good for self-help too.

I just finished reading (and crying over) Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult for this prompt. It was recommended by my latest book pal (a buddy read program we have in another group I'm in).

A couple of new Twitter peeps recommended I read What Lies Between Us or A Thousand Splendid Suns. Also while visiting the library, I met a fellow book lover and she recommended A Thousand Boy Kisses.

So I am picking from these.

I think I might be doing What Lies Between Us for this prompt - a new GR friend gave it a great review, and that's why I put it on hold at the library. I'm struggling with whether it "counts" since said GR friend did not explicitly recommend it to me, she just reviewed it. But I just checked it out of the library and I'll be reading it either way.