Musing Monday...It's Mine...Mine I Tell You...and You Can Not Have It!

An interesting question this week from MizB at Should Be Reading ...

This week’s musing (courtesy of Squidoo) asks…

Is there a book you absolutely love, but for some reason, people never think it sounds interesting, or maybe they read it and don’t like it at all?

Ok, this may sound odd, but in Real Life, as oppose to the fantasy world of BlogLand, I don't often recommend books to read. No, I don't have a problem here telling you I think this is a great book and this is one you should avoid like the plague. But in RL, I am a lot more hesitant. My SIL is one exception to that. She and I have very similar tastes in books, mysteries...violent, scary serial killers (as opposed to the peaceful, non-scary serial killers ;-)..) and if I read a book or she reads a book that they think the other will like, we will recommend it. And until she got that Evil Kindle, we would often loan each other books...but we won't go there.

But that is fine for common, everyday books we enjoyed. Even those that might be our favorites of the year. If I didn't like one she recommended or she hated one I liked, no big deal. In fact, it is interesting to talk about why.
But then there is, for many of us, another category of books that we love. All time lifetime favorites. Maybe ones we read again and again...the ones we would grab off our bookshelves if we had 3 minutes to grab a few to save for the rest of our lives. Books that we have such a connection to that to have them rejected is more personal.
Maybe I have learned my lesson now, but in the past I have recommended them to friends...usually with disappointing results.

One such book, that I will mention to you, because of that whole BlogLand thing is the The Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton. If you don't know it, it is a 'spiritual autobiography' about a young man, in the 1940, who moves from an amoral, dissolute life to become a Trappist monk...and a rather famous writer. Now, I read this when I was in high school, and a few times since, and it had a huge effect on me at the time. I think it is a great book, a classic and recommended it to a friend..only to be told she really did not 'get it' and found it sexist. Ok, maybe by the standards today it is a bit, since we are talking about the world as it was 70 years ago. I can't say I ever noticed. Ok, maybe Trappist monks are not everyone's cup of tea...
But golly, I am not sure I will be handing copies out anytime soon.
Even if it is a fabulous book.

Another is Death Comes For the Archbishop by Willa Cather. I love that book, totally love that book, another one of my all time favorites. A friend was going to the area in the Southwest in which it is set, so I recommended she read it first.
I am not sure she finished it....

I think I may keep the rest of my All Time Favorite List a bit close to the vest from now on.
I understand the desire to share a book we really love.
We think that people we like will love them as much as we do. Which is great when it happens, but way too often may just end up not happening.
Books are a very personal thing. Sometimes, I think, we love a book that just says the right thing to us at the right time in our lives and wins a place in our heart forever because of it. But we can't expect that to be someone else's experience.

Books I like...sure, I will give you a list.
Books I love...I am not sure I want to share.

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