Tip #13: People Won’t Read the Books You Tell Them to Read

Has this happened to you:

You’re reading a book and you really like it. It’s helping you understand life. You’re drinking from the muscle milk of the gods.

You want to share this book with other people because you know it will help them just like it’s helping you. So you tell everyone about it: friends, family, baristas, etc.

Then, no one reads the book.

This is because people read the books they want to read.

Sometimes those will be the books you’ve recommended. Many times, they won’t. Unsolicited book recommendations are like promotional emails. No one wants them.

But who knows, maybe three years down the line, the book that you sent a friend in the mail will call to them from their bookshelf, and they’ll finally throw it away.

Or read it.

Either way, they’re doing something for themselves.

I’ve found that blogging is a better way to vent my recommendations. It has a lower social and emotional cost.

And it’s less pressure on my friends to be just like me. Everyone wins.