Looking for a Good Book? Ask a Librarian

Louise Foerster
Aug 31, 2018 · 2 min read
Photo by Olivia Snow on Unsplash

JD pressed the book into my hands.

“I love this book. I cannot believe everyone isn’t talking about it — it’s absolutely superb. Read it. It’s like nothing you’ve ever read before.”

She buys new fiction for our local library and is passionate about all things book. Her enthusiasm for new writers, for new voices and new perspectives as well as well-established authors, is boundless, contagious, not to be resisted.

So, I checked it out, packed it in my bulging bag of books. On my way out to the car, I read the back cover copy, wondering what I had gotten myself into. I don’t read this genre, am not crazy about this time and place for historical fiction.

And yet I knew I would read it.

I might not finish it, but I would give it a solid chance.

Because a librarian said it was good.

Because she would ask me about it the next time we met.

The last time that I read the books that a librarian handed to me with wild enthusiasm, I fell in love. The stories were intricate, intelligent, and subtle. I carried the books with me everywhere, dove in whenever I had a spare moment. One of the stories convinced me I was in Africa, in a backward, rancorous town aching for rain and justice.

These librarians know me, know what I like to read — and know just how far to push me toward new and unfamiliar.

We trust one another: I trust them to recommend great reads. They trust me to read or not read the books and to share my thoughts — and they never forget what they pressed into my hands.

So, most recently, I read a book that I never would have found on my own, never mind picked up and read. I loved the book and have something new to recommend to others. (The book is The Removes by Tatjana Soli.)

All I had to do was to ask JD what was good to read.

Louise Foerster

Written by

Writes "A snapshot in time we can all relate to - with a twist." Novelist, marketer, business story teller, new product imaginer…

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