"Do You Take Suggestions?"

“Bungakumono, do you take suggestions for books to read?”

I’m glad you asked!

The answer, though, is mostly yes, with a tiny hint of not-necessarily.

I love hearing suggestions. I truly do. Many of my favorite books came to me by way of recommendation. So yes, if there’s a book that you think I may take a special interest in—or may even just have some worthwhile insights on—then, by all means, please share.

That said, though, there are a few things to keep in mind:

• I’m a husband and a father. Busy, busy.
• I work full time. More busy, busy.
• I have other hobbies. (Gasp! I know, I know. But I also love writing, playing the piano, going on road trips, playing video games, seeing the occasional movie, wooing my wife, etc.)
• I don’t get paid for this. (At least not much. I think I’ll give this Google Adsense thing a shot, though, and see if anything comes of it. And maybe I’ll put up one of those donation buttons. Hint, hint…)

Also, between my wife and I, we literally own HUNDREDS of books that I’ve not yet read. (And yet I still continue to buy more anyway. Oops.) So I’m not exactly at a loss for books to read.

So if you’d like to suggest a book—and can accept, without complaining, the fact that it may take me a long time to get around to it; in fact, that I may never get to it—then, yes, you’re absolutely welcome to provide your recommendations.

That said, here are some books/genres that I will not read. Please save your time and mine if you want to suggest a book that fits somewhere on this list. And yes, this includes “I know you said that you don’t normally like Genre X, but this one Genre X book is really good.” —sorry. Still no.

I will not read:

• Erotica – Or even books that are just highly and/or explicitly sexual. (Which I discuss in more detail here.)
• Harlequin-style romance.
• Paranormal romance.
• LGBTQ – I promise, it’s nothing whatsoever against the demographic of people. As a literary genre, it just doesn’t interest me. (I don't at all mind gay characters in other books - I'm just talking about the genre here.)
• Fan fiction – Yes, this includes Star Wars.
• Star Wars.
• “Cozy” mysteries – You know: “How the Cat Solved the Murder” and all that garbage. This includes Sue Grafton (even her books that don't include cats).
• James Patterson.
• Any particularly long-running series. (I’ll discuss this in more detail in a later blog.)

Also, though I certainly read quite a bit of non-narrative non-fiction—and a small amount of poetry—this blog simply isn’t about that. This blog is really meant to focus on narrative books (whether fiction or non-). I’ll gladly hear your non-narrative non-fiction and/or poetry suggestions if you’d like, but it’s highly unlikely that I’ll turn them into a blog—even if I read them.

Thank you! :)