image

Whenever I try a new coffee shop or restaurant, I always ask the barista or waitress/waiter what they recommend. Most of the time, the restaurant staff always has something on the tip of their tongue (no pun intended). But whenever I ask the baristas, they always put the question back on me. I don’t like that. If I knew what I wanted, I wouldn’t have asked.

Coffee is a very personal thing. The taste, roast, sweet, unsweet, etc… And maybe that’s why they turn the question back on me, but I’m asking for a reason.
Reading is very personal too. I’ve been at conferences where readers have asked what books my fellow authors and I, which of our books we’d recommend.

Being that reading is so personal, we do out the question back on them, as the reader. I write mainly contemporary so if you only read paranormal, then I won’t have much you want, unless you’re looking for something new and different.

I always get a little flustered talking to people I don’t know, even and sometimes especially, about my books. But I have been around some authors who are incredible at it. They do you, always put it back to the reader with “what do you like to read?”

I guess, in thinking about this, I can understand why a barista would put it back on me, for me to tell them what I like and what I don’t… I’ll try to be more aware of this next time I go into a new coffee shop, but when I ask, I really do want to know what their favorite is, whether I’d like it or not.

What about you? Do you really want to know what someone would recommend, or do you just want to be helped to a decision of what you might like?

~lissa

error: Content is protected !!