I think in academic circles the book reading promise is more challenging to keep than in other white collar circles. The former has both a higher frequency and wider range of reasons for recommendations, including some being mere professional flexes. If a normie friend recommends a book (with a remotely applicable reason why they're recommending it) I have a very high fulfillment rate of my "I'll have to check that out" reply. Especially if it was something I previously considered, the rec turbocharges it up the reading list order.
Those books have gone through both a recommender's extensive filter of both 1) having outcompeted many other leisure time offerings to which people are deeply habituated and 2) reached a high certitude of well-received recommendation since it's so rare - and potentially embarrassing? - to make one. Even if the title does miss the mark for me, digesting it invariably enables a higher level of conversation next time with the recommender.
This is in stark contrast to TV series and film recommendations from normies. Those are often ill-considered, incessant and solipsistic. Worse, there is an unusually high expectation that you'll make the enormous time investment to abide the recommendation. Though I suspect the reverse holds true here: an academic's recommendation of one passes through similar alternative-choice-survival and potential embarrassment/disagreement filters.
Thanks for reading! The idea of people potentially embarrassing themselves when making recommendations hadn't occurred to me. That's very true. The notion of a "normie" recommendation taking more guts or being more sincere also makes me think of how we may respond after reading it and finding it "misses the mark": with close friends who read all the time, I find one can be brutally honest ("I can't believe you think so highly of this!") but with other people we often temper our remarks. That's all for the good.
I was having a great conversation with someone last week--I had just met the guy and we were talking for an hour--and he mentioned a movie that he thought was great. I saw it but didn't like it at all, but I just played along. There was no need to derail a fine time. All of this is said because this has me thinking about the social components of making recommendations.
I think similarly to you about TV recs. Someone says, "Once you get to season 3, it really picks up," which makes me think "No" but make the empty promise to watch it. (BTW, if you've never seen The Shield, it's rough but great. LOL.)
Thanks for reading! Yes, the whole series of events was odd and seemed foretold—which makes me now think about how I came to learn about other writers who have become so important to me: random classes, wandering in libraries, etc. “If I hadn’t met person X, I might never have read author Y,” etc. And that makes me further think about how much of our taste is formed by our reading things because we like the person recommending them.
I think in academic circles the book reading promise is more challenging to keep than in other white collar circles. The former has both a higher frequency and wider range of reasons for recommendations, including some being mere professional flexes. If a normie friend recommends a book (with a remotely applicable reason why they're recommending it) I have a very high fulfillment rate of my "I'll have to check that out" reply. Especially if it was something I previously considered, the rec turbocharges it up the reading list order.
Those books have gone through both a recommender's extensive filter of both 1) having outcompeted many other leisure time offerings to which people are deeply habituated and 2) reached a high certitude of well-received recommendation since it's so rare - and potentially embarrassing? - to make one. Even if the title does miss the mark for me, digesting it invariably enables a higher level of conversation next time with the recommender.
This is in stark contrast to TV series and film recommendations from normies. Those are often ill-considered, incessant and solipsistic. Worse, there is an unusually high expectation that you'll make the enormous time investment to abide the recommendation. Though I suspect the reverse holds true here: an academic's recommendation of one passes through similar alternative-choice-survival and potential embarrassment/disagreement filters.
Thanks for reading! The idea of people potentially embarrassing themselves when making recommendations hadn't occurred to me. That's very true. The notion of a "normie" recommendation taking more guts or being more sincere also makes me think of how we may respond after reading it and finding it "misses the mark": with close friends who read all the time, I find one can be brutally honest ("I can't believe you think so highly of this!") but with other people we often temper our remarks. That's all for the good.
I was having a great conversation with someone last week--I had just met the guy and we were talking for an hour--and he mentioned a movie that he thought was great. I saw it but didn't like it at all, but I just played along. There was no need to derail a fine time. All of this is said because this has me thinking about the social components of making recommendations.
I think similarly to you about TV recs. Someone says, "Once you get to season 3, it really picks up," which makes me think "No" but make the empty promise to watch it. (BTW, if you've never seen The Shield, it's rough but great. LOL.)
100% relatable. Thanks for this heartfelt narrative Dan! Seems to be a bit more than a coincidence you two met.
Thanks for reading! Yes, the whole series of events was odd and seemed foretold—which makes me now think about how I came to learn about other writers who have become so important to me: random classes, wandering in libraries, etc. “If I hadn’t met person X, I might never have read author Y,” etc. And that makes me further think about how much of our taste is formed by our reading things because we like the person recommending them.