Monday, January 3, 2011

No, I Must Not Read This

I am sorry, but when I hear "You Must Read This" on NPR, I cringe, steel myself, and rail against most of which the author who is speaking says.  Sure, some of the books they mention are good books if you like fiction (primarily, what they talk about it fiction), but "must read" ?  Who is NPR, or any author, to tell me what I Must and Must Not read?  I'll read whatever I would like to read, or care to read, but rarely will I ever read what I am told I "must read". 

The concept of promoting good books and interesting authors is fine, but do not tell me I "must read" something.  MAYBE someone originally meant this to be "tongue in cheek", but I've heard dozens of authors inthe afternoon promote their favorite "must reads" and they seem so myopically focused as to actually believe the imperative, "you must!" - a myopic author?  Yeah, who'd have thought there were any of those.

2 comments:

  1. I bristle at that as well. Why can't they just say "I heartily recommend"?

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  2. Precisely! "I Heartily Recommend", "This Book Changed My Life", "Books That Impressed Other Authors"... all of those are well and good.. but "You Must" ... um, no.

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