This is interesting. When I was thinking about opening up my annual twelve days of book list postings, I didn't plan to be part of some larger attempt to just get people to buy more books. I'm all for people buying books but to me the spark for the Holiday Season Book Recommendation Event was aimed more at people who were already planning to buy a book for someone this year (or several books for several people) but don't know what to choose. Anyone who has ever worked in a bookstore has seen these people show up (usually very close to Christmas) and watched them wander aimlessly through various sections of the store before they finally ask for help. They give you the age and sex of the person they're shopping for and maybe a general idea of what they like (mysteries or gardening or boats) but they have no idea beyond that of what book to choose. So as a bookseller you are left to try and describe various types of books (there are cozies, or hard boiled detectives or partners in crime and on and on) and hope that in that five or ten minutes you can say something that will connect for your customer and help him/her choose the right book.
In a lot of ways though it's never more than a crap shoot.
So my thought was to get lit bloggers putting together posts of books that fit together, or books that fit with other things, or books that fit for certain types of people (if they like reading and they love Florida then good grief - why aren't they reading Travis McGee???). Again, I think it's wonderful if folks go book shopping this year but honestly, I remember hundreds of customers who did just that in Fairbanks and I really don't think they walked out with the right books.
The owner was happy but the person those books were all wrapped up for - I'm not so sure about that.
Sometimes it's not as easy as choosing a book for a ten-year old boy or forty-year old woman. Sometimes you need a bit more to go on and those are the buyers I'm aiming for. (If for no other reason than to spare all those bookstore clerks a few frustrating hours this December.)
